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MEMORIALS 



3-^9/ 



WASHINGTON 



The Publishers beg to announce that a Special EDITION DE LUXE of 
the Memorials has been prepared, printed on finest large quarto paper, 
ivith specially selected impressions of all the Autotype Portraits. 

The Large Paper Edition de Luxe alone has the portrait of Fulton, the only 
existing portrait of America's Great Engineer, and the portrait of 
Alary Phillipse. by Middlcton, neither of which hare ever before been 
produced. 

Photo-gravure of Mary Washington, and also that if Pulton, executed in the 
highest style of Art by Annan, Her Majesty Queen Victoria's special 
Engraver, are ready for delivery in order oj subscription. None 
but Proof impressions on India paper will be issued. Size of plates. 
14 by ii J , inches, on Imperial plate paper, 22 by 30 inches. 

The well-known painting of Peter Stuyvesaufs Army entering New York, 
the delight of Washington Irving, by Heath and Park, has been 
Autotyped. The few remaining copies can be obtained. 

v ti of the three large Autotypes, i.e. the full-face and profile of General 
Washington, and the prof le of Martha Washington, may still be ho. I. 
price twenty-five dollars. 




WASHINGTON. 



I ,-./ by the Autotype Company, London. From the original Oil Painting by Jama Sharpies. 



MEMORIALS OF 

WASHINGTON 

AND OF 

1 

MARY, HIS MOTHER, AND 
MARTHA, HIS WIFE, 

FROM LETTERS AND PAPERS OF ROBERT GARY 
AND JAMES SHARPIES. 

By JAMES WALTER, 

Retired Major 4TH Lancashire Artillery (British Army List), 
author of "Shakespeare's home and rural life." 



ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS OF 

WASHINGTON AND HIS WIFE, SEVEN PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT 

AMERICAN WOMEN OF THE PERIOD, AND PORTRAITS OF 

ROBERT FULTON AND PRIESTLEY, FROM 

PAINTINGS BY SHARPLES ; 

ALSO PORTRAITS OF 

MARY WASHINGTON AND MARY PHILLIPSE, 

BY MIDDLE TON. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743 and 745, BROADWAY, 
NEW YORK. 

1887. 






Jo: 



£ 



.& 















^ 



Entered at Washington, according to A.' oj Congress, in the year 1SS6. Alt 

reserved. 

Each of the Portraits are also duly entered at Washington, and copyright 

strictly secured. 



PATRIOTS of every country will welcome with pride and gratifi- 
cation the following exquisite Sonnet from the pen of Francis 
Bennoch, the loved and gifted friend of Mary Russell Mitford, 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Longfellow. It has been suggested 
that the two final lines would serve admirably as an inscription 
for the Pedestal of the National Monument. 



WASHINGTON. 



(tOEFORE thy tomb, great Statesman, I have bowed 
-L* In humble reverence, knowing well the zeal 

With which thou struggled for thy people's weal. 
Struggled and conquered ! Never tempest cloud 
Could stay the lightning of thy heart, nor shroud 

That quenchless courage which made despots reel, 
And men, down-trodden, of thy prowess proud ! 

And now I gaze with rapture on thy face 
So calm and deep in thought, transcending earth !) 

By Sharples limned, — where dignity, and grace, 
And force combined to give a Nation birth, 

With power to speak and liberate the race ! 
Of Freedom's bravest leaders, there are none 
Whose fame o'ershadows thine, Heroic Washington ! 

Francis Bennoch. 
Tavistock Square, London 



ahcsc JttemotiaLs arc respectfully Hcbicatcb 

To the Nation so highly blessed in calling him her Son, whom no Climatt 
can claim, no Country can appropriate, — the born of Providence to the 
Human Race, whose fame is Eternity, his residence the Creation. 

In the formation of Washington, Nature may be said to have 
endeavoured to improve upon herself, and as though all the virtues of the 
Ancient World were hut so many studies preparatory to the Patriot of 
the New. 

Ccesar ivas merciful, — Scipio was continent, — Hannibal was patient ; 
but it remained for Washington to blend them all in one, to exhibit in 
one glow of associated beauty the grace of every model and the perfection 
of every master. 

As a General, he marshalled his Peasant into a Veteran, and supplied 
by discipline the absence of experience. As a Statesman, he enlarged the 
policy of the Cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advan- 
tage ; and such was the wisdom of his Counsels, that to the Soldier and 
the Statesman he added the character of the Sage. 



Ranfold Grange, 
Slinfold, Sussex, England. 




CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Arrival of the painter Sharpies in New York in 1794, and again in 1809 
—Yellow fever prevalent— Cary's letters introducing him to the 
British Minister and Washington— English descent of the Washing- 
tons— Sharpies paints two portraits of Washington and one of his 
w if e _Their despatch to England— One returns to America, and is 
exhibited before the Historical Society of New York in 1854— Article 
from New York Albion at the time— Great interest taken by Lord 
Lyndhurst in the Sharpies and Middleton portraits .... 1 

CHAPTER II. 

THE SHARPLES PORTRAITS BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

New York Historical Society minutes record as to the portrait loaned in 
1854— Secretary Warner details its reception before the Society — 
Letter of the venerable Dr. Van Pelt, who remembered Washington, 
and testifies to his portrait— Letter from Washington Irving, 
referring to its accuracy, and asking permission to engrave it for his 
contemplated " Life of Washington"— Letter from the Poets Bryant 
and Longfellow, expressing admiration of the portrait — Letters from 
Washington Irving, urging purchase and stating that money cost is 
guaranteed — Letter from Colden to Macready in England— Mac- 
ready replies with full history of the portraits— Letter from Dickens 
and Thackeray l 3 

CHAPTER III. 

The three portraits return to New York in 1882, and are received at 
Century and Union League Clubs— David Huntington, Eastman 
Johnson, J. G. A- Ward, and Launt Thompson certify to their 
authenticity — The historian Dunlap and his account of the pictures 

The New York Evening Post commends them to public notice — 

Ralph Waldo Emerson testifies and names Middleton's portrait of 
Mary Washington, to see which his efforts when in England were 
ineffectual— Letters from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elihu Burritt, and 
Albert Gallatin— Speech of Daniel Webster on the portraits . . 25 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



. 



Cary and Co., London, Washington's agents— Robert Cary more than a 
friend — Washington's fondness for English tripe — Letter from 
Washington expressing his own and Mrs. Washington's feeling in 
regard to the portraits, and as not favouring their being duplicated 
— Sharpies formally introduced to Washington in Philadelphia by 
English Minister — Stays with the younger Franklin — Washington's 
great kindness— Introduced to Hamilton, who becomes his patron 
and friend — Emerson's efforts to see the portrait of Mary Washing- 
ton duplicated — Artist life in New York — Voyage up the Hudson in 
1S09 4i 



CHAPTER V. 

Sharpies becomes "the fashion'' in New York — Trumbull and the Hon. 
Mr. Jay make unsuccessful efforts for reproduction of the portraits 
for America— Letter from Trumbull urging same, and explaining 
their great value to the nation, also giving account of all the other 
existent portraits, contrasting them — Sharpies paints Priestley in 
Philadelphia — Hamilton, Lee, and Washington meet in the painter's 
studio in Philadelphia— Affability and personal appearance of 
Washington— Sharpies visits Lee in Virginia— Admirable criticism 
of the portraits by G. B. West, of St. Paul's 57 



CHAPTER VI. 

Washington's dreamy hours — Hamilton explains to Sharpies that 
Washington fancies himself connected with the Methuen family, of 
Corsham, England — The Chief's profound knowledge of English 
history — Description of Corsham, its old mansion and church — De 
Witt Clinton's attachment to Sharpies — His greatness, and public 
sympathy at death — Leading public men, through Washington and 
Hamilton, unite in guaranteeing commissions to Sharpies — Bio- 
graphy of the guarantors — Washington, Hamilton, and Tobias Lear 
take supper with the artist S3 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mary Washington — Existence of an authenticated Portrait by Middleton 
— Its mutilated condition — Letter of Washington stating its injuries, 
how occurring, and desiring repair — The portrait sent to England 
for restoration — Royal Academician Bird undertakes it — The widow 
Sharpies medium of communicating with the Custis family as to 
restoration of the painting — Bird completes it — Cary eventually pays 
the cost — General Grant views the portrait — His letter to the owner, 
expressing great thankfulness for the privilege extended him 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Attractive nature of female excellences — their qualities illustrated in 
Mary Washington — Good Parson Baker's teachings — Mary Washing- 
ton's family descent — Source of her religious inspiration — The home 
of her youth — Her sponsors at baptism — Armorial bearings of her 



CONTENTS. 



family— Washington and Franklin families originally residents in 
same part of England— Washington assists in removal of his 
mother to Fredericksburg— Her example under bereavement— 
Washington relates the advantages she received from Parson Baker's 
instruction— Remarks on his mother's portrait — Her bearing as a 
widow, and watchful care of her children— Her example meet for 
general imitation 



CHAPTER XI. 



117 



CHAPTER IX. 

Washington's pursuit in life directed by his mother— Mary Washington's 
life one of general privacy— Letter from Washington to his mother 
—Another letter assuring deference to her wishes— Mary's estimate 
of human greatness— Her interest deep though not over-sanguine of 
the triumph of America in the struggle— Her thankfulness at the 
success in passage of the Delaware— Her fervent gratitude in the 
surrender of Lord Cornwallis— Religious traditions bequeathed by 
Mary Washington— Her meeting her son after this eventful occurrence 
—The ball at Fredericksburg— Declines relinquishing her indepen- 
dent home— Her home happiness and abstemious life— Lafayette's 
visit— Washington's last visit and general submission to his mother. 139 



CHAPTER X. 

Washington's distrust of the French Revolution— His persona! sacrifices 
during his terms of Presidency, 17S9 to 1796— Imminent danger of 
the country during his second Presidency— Avails of the horrors 
excited by the French Revolution for praiseworthy purposes- 
Sharpies' devotion to Washington— Washington's genius, evidenced 
in his conduct at time of the Declaration of Independence, retrieves 
the desperate condition of the country's affairs— The intrigues of 
Genet— Washington's message of December, 1793, on the country's 
foreign relations — Great excitement everywhere — Washington 
dignified and unswerving— Robert Cary tracks the designs 'and 
doings of Genet and other enemies in America— Pinckney's des- 
patches make known England's desire for peace— Cary's great love 
and devotion to Washington .... 



169 



Mount Vernon Washington's goal of happiness— His visits there when a 
child— Lawrence Washington's marriage with Anne Fairfax — Their 
residence at Mount Vernon built by him — George as a boy visiting 
there— Joseph Ball's letter to Mary Washington, discouraging the 
sending George to sea— Early susceptibility to female attractions 
—Appointed public surveyor to Culpepper County— Excels as an 
athlete— Introduced to Martha Custis— Courtship, marriage, and 
early married life— Domestic habits— George Mason his neighbour 
and friend — The churches in which he' worshipped, and their 
ministers — Martha Washington's children— Her daughter's death 
—Destroys her husband's letters — Lawrence at Mount Vernon — 
Sharpies assists in improving the grounds — Washington and La- 
fayette—Able summary of Washington's character from Hunt's 
Merchant's Magazine i 9 6 



xii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PAG] 

< ibject of the Memorials — Washington joins Braddock— Early discourage- 
ments — Mary Phillipse— Rochambeau at Mount Vernon — English 
description of Washington — Rebukes Lund Washington — Labour in 
founding the City of Washington — Visits his mother at Fredericks- 
burg — Declines State money aid — Course of life at Mount Vernon — 
Organization of Congress— Washington elected President — Proceeds 
to New York — Ovations en route — Sworn in as President — Seat of 
Government removed to Philadelphia — The Philadelphia mansion 
— Washington's English carriage described — also his presentation 
china— Equipages and plate described — Loss of valuable correspon- 
dence between Sharpies and Robert Fulton greatly to be deplored — 
Eventful occurrences of 1794 and 1795— Jefferson's retirement— and 
requested resumption of office — Vaughan, a London merchant, 
presents chimney-piece at Mount Vernon 241 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Robert Fulton and Sharpies, as artists and men of science, close friends 
during many years — Sketch of Fulton's steam and torpedo dis- 
coveries — Sharpies' death — The unfinished oil portraits and sketches 
of female beauties left by Sharpies— Vicissitudes through which 
many passed — Articles from the Boston papers — Testimony of the 
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and Dr. Poole, Librarian of Chicago 
— The portraits' reception at Chicago, St. Paul, Cincinnati, and 
Philadelphia— Articles from the Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cin- 
cinnati papers — Testimony of Charles Henry Hart and W. G. 
Baker, of Philadelphia — Washington's high sense of duty in dealing 
with public appointments — Defence of Washington in the case of 
Andre from the charges preferred by historians — Washington's ill- 
ness and death— Proceedings in the National Legislature consequent 
on his death — Rev. Dr. Bancroft on Washington .... 



LIST OF PORTRAITS. 



Profile Portrait of Washington / . 
Full-Face Portrait of Washington*/; 
Martha Washington .... 
General Hamilton's Wife (nee Schuyler) 
Priestley ... ■ ■ 

Miss Field *< 

Mary, Mother of Washington l^ 
Miss Jay ^ . 
Mrs. Van Ransalaerk 
Patrick Henry's Daughter 
- Angelica Peale . £r . 
Robert Fulton's Wife (nee Livingstone) 



iS 



Frontispiece 

■ 13 

• • 25' 

• 4i' 

• 57 

• S3 

• 103 
. 117 

• '39 
. 169 
. 196 
. 241 
. 246 



Mary Phillipse 

Writers of the time record how the young soldier, apparently invincible to 
the mortal weapons of war, was sorely smitten by the sly archer concealed in 
the bright eyes, blooming cheeks, and winning ways of Mary Phillipse. He 
lingered in her presence as long as duty would permit, and would fain have 
carried her away with him to Virginia as a bride, but his natural diffidence 
kept the momentous question unspoken in his heart, and Roger Morris bore 
away the prize. 

Robert Fulton 

The pioneer in the application of steam-power to purposes of navigation. 
The first inventor of torpedoes and of submarine war vessels. 



291 




CHAPTER I. 

Arrival of the painter Sharpies in New York in 1794, and again in 1809 — Yellow 
fever prevalent — Car^s letters introducing him to the British Minister and 
Washington — English descent of the Washingtons — Sharpies paints two 
portraits of Washington and one of his wife — Their despatch to England — 
One returns to America, and is exhibited before the Historical Society of 
New York in 1854— Article from New York Albion at the time— Great 
interest taken by Lord Lyndhurst in the Sharpies and Middleton portraits. 

JAMES Sharples, the artist to whom the world stands 
indebted for the portraits of Washington and his wife, was 
an Englishman who studied in London under the eminent 
painter, George Romney. He paid two visits to America, the 
first occasion was in 1 794, when the vessel on board which 
he, his wife, son, and daughter were passengers, was captured 
by a French frigate and taken into Brest, where they 
remained prisoners of war for some months. After his 
release he succeeded in getting out safely to New York, 
and resided in a house in Greenwich Street, and which 
was afterwards occupied by Bishop Moor. The date 
of his return to England is not known. Their second visit 
was in 1809, the voyage being made from Bristol in seven 
weeks in the brig Nancy, commanded by Captain Barstow. 
This vessel sailed from Bristol on the 1st of June, and 
reached New York on the 21st of July, 1809. They occu- 
pied a house in Lispinard Street, owned by a Mr. Knapp. 
There is now resident in Brooklyn, New York, a gentleman 
named Pope, whose wife is the daughter of the very captain 

B 



ENTERING NEW YORK HARBOUR. 



who brought the family out, and who testifies as follows as 
to their arrival and occurring incidents during the voyage : — 

"Brooklyn, April 3, 1882. 
Our family retains a very pleasant remembrance of Mr. 
and Mrs. Sharpies as often spoken of by my wife's father, 
Captain Wilson Barstow, with whom they came as pas- 
sengers from Bristol in the brig Nancy, in 1809 — indeed 
there seems to have grown up on the voyage a very strong 
feeling of mutual regard, as evinced in a letter of Mrs. 
Sharpies. Mr. Sharpies had offered a portrait of the 
captain to be made on the voyage, but this being declined, 
he painted for him in cabinet size a composition of Paul 

and Virginia, which picture we now have. 

G. L. Pope." 

Memoranda found among the family papers thus refer 
to their voyage and landing in New York : — 

" On the 30th of May, 1809, political circumstances being 
favourable to our returning to America, as also the season 
of the year, we decided to embark in the packet from 
Falmouth, or in a brig at Bristol, the only vessel preparing to 
sail for New York, in order that my husband should execute 
Mr. Cary's commissions. We had some little hesitation 
which vessel to take, which was finally decided in favour of 
the latter, she being pronounced well-built and perfectly safe, 
the captain very skilful and of excellent character. We 
sailed from Kingroad, Bristol, on the 1st of June, and came 
in sight of Sandy Hook on the 20th of July. On the 
following day, early in the morning, we were opposite 
Staten Island, and within sight of New York, waiting for 
the port physician. We were disappointed in not seeing 
our old acquaintance, Dr. Rogers, who we regretted to learn 
was detained at home by indisposition. Dr. Baily came 



LANDING AND MEETING WITH FRIENDS. 



on board to examine the ship and people, and finding us all 
healthy, we were permitted to proceed to the city. Several 
newsmen also came on board to gain information respecting 
the politics of Europe, and we furnished them with papers. 
My husband and daughter Rolinda went on shore in one of 
their boats: the ship sailed up to the wharf. I remained 
anxiously expecting their return with information concerning 
our son James, whom we had left behind us in New York. 
My husband continuing absent some time, I began to 
apprehend either that some accident had befallen our son, 
or that he had left the city. Mr. Sharpies and Rolinda 
returned without him, being a great disappointment, but 
their countenances indicated that all was well. We engaged 
apartments at Mrs. Williams', at whose house my son had 
boarded since his arrival in America. Mrs. Williams 
received us in the most kind and friendly manner, and gave us 
the most satisfactory intelligence respecting his conduct 
during nearly three years that he had been with her. She 
seemed to have a motherly affection for him, to be delighted 
to see his parents and sister, and talk with them about him. 
Previous to dinner we walked in the city, and called on Miss 
Templeton, who very cordially welcomed our return,-and in 
a way the most dignified and pleasing. After some time 
her mother made known to us that a week ago she had 
been married to Mr. Johnson. We engaged to take tea 
with them the next evening. On Sunday, the 23rd, Mr. 
Connard and Mr. Seymore accompanied us to St. George's 
Church. We were much struck with the beauty of its 
interior and decorations. Nine elegant glass chandeliers 
were suspended from the ceiling. On the 24th we went to 
see a house in State Street, which was to let. On going 
through it we concluded it would suit us very well. On 
inquiring the rent we were told it was a thousand dollars, 
besides taxes : this made us hesitate, and we concluded 

B 2 



4 YELLOW FEVER IN NEW YORK CITY. 

first to see a little more of the town and country. After 
dinner we went into the upper part of the town to examine 
houses that were to let, and went to Vauxhall Gardens. 
Dr. Miller called on the 25th, and expressed being much 
pleased at our return. He was easy and dignified ; his 
conversation and manner were particularly pleasing. On 
the 26th, Mr. Charles Miller paid us a visit, and in the 
evening took us in a coach to drink tea at his country 
house in Greenwich. We were much pleased with our 
drive and visit. The houses on the island are delightfully 
pleasant, particularly those situated on the North River 
where the gardens are beautiful. On the 28th we called to 
see Bishop Moor, and found him living in the house we 
formerly occupied near Greenwich. The family were not at 
home. We afterwards called at Dr. Anderson's, Mr. Hodge's, 
and Mr. King's. Yellow fever was the prevailing subject of 
conversation ; two cases had occurred in streets near ours, 
and every person manifested alarm. After much looking 
about, Mr. MacLain and other friends aiding our inquiries, 
we took a house in Lispinard Street, of Mr. Knapp, the 
owner. Governor and Mrs. Morris have been to see us, 
and took us to see Cooper in ' Macbeth.' " 

This interesting letter shows the class of society in which 
the family had moved during their previous residence, and 
that their return was cordially welcomed. Sharpies pos- 
sessed some little private property, and was a man of 
culture, as well as versed in science. He had been led to 
America on the first occasion consequent on a sea voyage 
having been recommended for his health, and, as at the 
moment several commissions were offered him to paint 
officers of the army who at the close of the war had settled 
in America, and whose relatives in England desired portraits, 
he availed of the opportunity. Chief among such orders 



WASHINGTON'S ANCESTRY. 



was a commission from Mr. Robert Cary, a merchant in 
London, who for many years had acted as mercantile agent 
for Washington in the sale of his tobacco grown on his 
estate. 

' The house " of Cary and Co. had more than one client 
of the Washington family. In this connection it is inte- 
resting to go back to the period of the family first coming 
out to America, and to trace it from the year 1538 in 
England, such being the date when the manor of Sulgrave, 
in Northamptonshire, was granted to Lawrence Washington, 
of Gray's Inn, and for some time Mayor of Northampton, 
who, it is generally agreed, was born at Warton, in Lan- 
cashire, where his father lived. The grandson of this first 
proprietor of Sulgrave, of the same name, had many 
children, two of whom, John and Lawrence Washington, 
being the second and fourth sons, emigrated to Virginia 
about the year 1657, an ^ settled at Bridges Creek, on the 
Potomac River, in the county of Westmoreland. The 
eldest brother, Sir William Washington, married a half- 
sister of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and it is 
established that " blue blood " ruled in all branches of the 
family. Lawrence had been a student at Oxford ; John 
had resided on an estate at South Cave, in Yorkshire, 
which gave rise, as Jared Sparks says, to an erroneous 
tradition among his descendants that their ancestor came 
from the north of England. The two brothers bought 
lands in Virginia ; both were successful cultivators of 
tobacco, and transacted their home business through the 
Carys of London. 

John Washington, shortly after his arrival in America, 
was employed in a military command against the Indians, 
and rose to the rank of colonel. The parish in which he 
lived was named after him. He married Anne Pope, by 
whom he had two sons, Lawrence and John, and a 



THE WASHINGTON ESTATES. 



daughter. The elder son, Lawrence, married Mildred 
Warner, of Gloucester County, and had three children, 
John, Augustine, and Mildred. 

Augustine Washington, the second son, was twice mar- 
ried. His first wife was Jane Butler, by whom he had 
three sons and a daughter — Butler (who died in infancy), 
Lawrence, Augustine, and Jane, the last of whom died 
likewise when a child. By his second wife, Mary Ball, to 
whom he was married on the 6th of March, 1730, he had 
six children, George, Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, 
and Mildred. 

George Washington, the " Immortal," was born in West- 
moreland County, Virginia, on the 22nd day of February, 
i 732, being the eldest son by the second marriage, great- 
grandson of John Washington, who emigrated to America, 
and the sixth in descent from the first Lawrence Wash- 
ington, of Sulgrave, Northamptonshire, in England. 

At the time of George Washington's birth, his father 
resided on the banks of the Potomac, in Westmoreland 
County, but he removed not long afterwards to an estate 
owned by him in Stafford County, on the east side of the 
Rappahannoc River, opposite Fredericsburg. Here he lived 
until his death, which happened, after a sudden and short 
illness, on the 12th of April, 1743, at the age of forty-nine, 
and was buried at Bridges Creek, in the tomb of his ances- 
tors. His will proves him to have been possessed of large 
and valuable properties in lands, and, as these had been 
acquired chiefly by his own industry and enterprise, it may 
reasonably be inferred that, in the concerns of business, 
he was methodical, skilful, honourable, and energetic. His 
occupation was that of a planter, which, from the first 
settlement of the country, had been the pursuit of nearly all 
the principal gentlemen of Virginia. 

Jared Sparks further tells us that each of his sons 



ROBERT CARY'S ENGAGEMENT OF SHARPIES. 



inherited from him a separate plantation. To the eldest, 
Lawrence, he bequeathed an estate near Hunting Creek ; 
this is the property now known as Mount Vernon, of world- 
wide notoriety, which then consisted of twenty-five hundred 
acres ; and also other lands, and shares in iron-works 
situated in Virginia and Maryland, which were productive. 
The second son had for his part an estate in Westmoreland. 
To George were left the lands and mansion where his father 
lived at the time of his decease ; and to each of the other 
sons, an estate of six or seven hundred acres. The youngest 
daughter died when an infant, and for the only remaining 
one a suitable provision was made in the will. It is thus 
seen that Augustine Washington, although suddenly cut 
off in the vigour of manhood, left all his children in a state 
of comparative independence. Confiding in the prudence 
of the mother, he directed that the proceeds of all the 
property of his children should be at her disposal until they 
should respectively come of age. 

From knowledge of Washington's nobility of character, 
and great services to his country, and through confidential 
relations he had personally become greatly endeared to 
Robert Cary, a merchant in London, his agent, so much 
so that " I greatly covet the illustrious General, my 
loved friend's portrait by a competent painter who shall 
do justice to the noble subject." So wrote Cary at the 
time. His whole heart, as his purse, was in the matter, 
and we accordingly find Sharpies sent over the seas to 
compass his yearning; "having satisfied myself," as he 
added, " by several interviews with my friend George 
Romney that Mr. Sharpies, whom he recommends for the 
purpose, will produce such a work as will meet my wish, 
and be worthy of the greatest of all men." 

Romney had become advanced in years, Sharpies was 
his pupil, and we may be assured he would select one he 



8 THE PORTRAITS REACH ENGLAND IN 1796. 

deemed best, as an artist to do justice to the subject ; 
Washington being then the admired of the whole world, 
and Robert Cary an old friend he was desirous to serve. 
Romney came out of Lancashire, so did Sharpies ; there 
were thus birth ties as well as professional associations 
between the master and his disciple ; and although there is 
nothing to show that the latter was a man of great note 
among artists, yet it must be borne in mind " there were 
giants in those days" in England's portrait world, and no 
pretence is made that Sharpies ranked among them. To 
have sent out either of the stars then shining in portraiture, 
who would have needed at least eight months' absence — 
seven and eight weeks being in those days no uncommon 
length of the voyage either way — was out of the question, 
for, although Millais' two thousand guineas fee for a single 
head had not yet cropped up, yet very respectable prices 
were earned ; Sharpies himself, as a junior unblessed by 
fame, charging fifty guineas and getting it, — this at a time 
when men of means were few and far between. His passage 
outward was paid, and even on his first visit he walked on 
shore in anything but an impecunious condition, as his wife 
states that he on landing went and made a deposit of over 
two hundred pounds in a New York bank, as a nest-egg. 
It is by no means certain that this comfortable start was to 
his advantage. Instead of setting to work, and knocking 
off his commissions, he would appear to have taken things 
easy. There remains nothing to show the precise date at 
which he commenced or finished his two portraits of Wash- 
ington, one a full-face in military uniform, the other a 
profile, and one of Martha, Washington's wife, a profile. 

All that is certain regarding his work at the time, is that 
the portraits reached England during 1797. Three years 
and more had thus expired in the interval of his landing and 
the pictures' arrival. There was no holding on to them 



CONTINUITY OF THE PORTRAITS IN THE CARY FAMILY. 9 

for exhibition purposes after their completion. Washington 
and his wife each gave their first sittings at Mount Vernon ; 
thf General afterwards gave him two final sittings in 
Philadelphia, but Lady Washington sat to him only at 
Mount Vernon. All three pictures were taken to New 
York, and finished there by Sharpies in his own house in 
Greenwich Street, and were at once sent off to England. 
Mrs. Sharpies, in a letter to Mr. Cary, dwells on the advan- 
tage her husband would have derived from an exhibition of 
the portraits, and which she said had been " seen by nobody 
but General Hamilton, Governor Morris, General North, 
Mr. Van Ransalaer, De Witt Clinton, Chief Justice Marshall, 
Judge Hobart, the Barclays, Chancellor Livingstone, Judge 
Kent, the Jays, and intimate friends of the family visiting 
at Mount Vernon ; whereas if we could have been permitted 
the opportunity to exhibit them in Philadelphia, and here in 
New York, it would have benefited my husband greatly." 

The portraits have through unbroken continuity been since 
generally known of and seen by such public men of Ame- 
rica as through occasions of going to England were enabled 
to avail themselves of such to visit Mr. Cary, who up to the 
time of his death always felt a pleasure in showing the three 
portraits to any persons desirous, as he was wont to term it, 
of " paying court to my distinguished guests." Use of the 
word " guest " would indicate some design on his part to be 
the instrument of their return to America, and yet he 
possibly felt that he could hardly present that which had 
been given to himself. Cary was a bachelor, full of chivalry, 
and there was nobody to inherit these heirlooms, excepting 
a younger unmarried brother and one sister. She had 
become Mrs. Edwardes, and will be seen to hold a trust of 
deep interest to every American heart, inasmuch as it 
fell to her lot to inherit the priceless treasure, the portrait 
of Mary, mother of George Washington, painted by an 

C 



io THE "NEW YORK ALBION" DESCRIBES ONE IN 1S54. 

artist named Middleton. At her death the painting passed 
into the possession of her unmarried daughter, Eleanor 
Edwardes. 

The full-face portrait of Washington, and the Peter 
Stuyvesant army painting by Heath and Parke — the latter 
work since reproduced in most artistic manner by the 
Autotype Company of London — came out from England, 
and were loaned to the New York Historical Society, and 
exhibited by that body in the University of New York in 
April, 1S54, under the announcement that, after a stay at 
Irving's home, " Sunnyside," " It is brought back to 
America for the inspection of the country's patriots." 
Strong feeling was at the time expressed that these 
works, so truly national, should be worthily engraved. 
Mr. Astor, Mr. Irving, and others offered to provide funds. 

The New York Albion, of which Mr. Young was for some 
years editor and proprietor, described the full-face portrait 
in that then popular journal, but which no longer exists. 
Mr. Young was brother of George Frederick Young, a 
London merchant of high position, and who sat in Par- 
liament during several sessions. He, together with Mr. 
Washington Irving, Mr. Astor, and others, took great 
interest in the pictures when brought back to America in 
1853, and the following article, from Mr. Young's pen, 
appeared in the New York Albion at the time : — 

" Members of the Historical Society, artists, and persons 
generally to whom the subject is attractive, are invited to 
call at the office of this journal, at any time during the next 
fortnight, for the purpose of examining a portrait of George 
Washington, which undoubtedly possesses high merit as a 
picture, and which there is abundant reason to infer was 
taken from the life. 

Prior to the War of Independence, the mercantile house 
of Cary and Co,, of London, acted as agents and corre- 



EXHIBITED BEFORE N. Y HISTORICAL SOCIETY IN 1854. 1 1 

spondents of Washington, then an officer in the British 
service. Original letters from him to them, evidently not 
isolated, are before us as we write, forming as it were pen- 
dants to the likeness in question. These latter for many 
years hung over the mantelpiece in Mr. Cary's private 
office in London, and belonged recently to a Mr. Le 
Marchant, whose father was in the confidential employ of 
the firm, and from whom these particulars were obtained. 
Sharpies was a relative of Mr. Cary, and came to the 
United States on a tour for the benefit of his health, 
bringing with him orders and commissions to paint numerous 
portraits of officers and gentlemen, for their families in 
England. The connection, therefore, between the subject, 
the painter, and the original owner of the picture is obvious 
enough. Whether this Mr. Sharpies is identical with the 
Mr. Sharpless — two of whose crayon sketches of Washing- 
ton were in the Washington Exhibition at the Art Union 
Rooms — we cannot pretend to determine. The slight 
variation in the mode of spelling the name is unimportant. 
Perhaps the fact that Mr. Sharpies came hither expressly 
to execute commissions may account — in view of their 
identity — for his only leaving such slight souvenirs behind 
him. The head itself reminds one of Stuart's ; but it has, we 
think, a latent fire in the eye which is wanting in the ordinary 
likenesses, and is on the whole more full of character. It 
is painted with great vigour and breadth, and cannot possibly 
be mistaken for a copy." 

The interest evinced in these portraits by the late 
Lord Lyndhurst was the first moving cause of their 
being brought into prominence. Closely on their 
arrival in England, his lordship stated they would un- 
questionably be adopted as the typical portraits of 
the Washingtons. The pictures, would probably have 

C 2 



12 LORD LYNDHURST ON THE PORTRAITS. 

dropped out of knowledge at Robert Cary's death, but 
for his admonitions. Lord Lyndhurst was an American 
citizen by birth, who through vast abilities raised him- 
self to the dignity of Chancellor of England. His father, 
John Singleton Copley, was born in Boston in i 738, and 
went to England in 1776, where he knew Sharpies. Copley 
was self-educated, and before leaving for England painted 
Washington. Copley acquired fame, and was elected a 
member of the Royal Academy. Lord Lyndhurst was 
in the habit of buying up portraits executed by his 
father. Through his father and Romney he knew Sharpies 
and his portraits of the Washingtons well. Robert Cary 
apprised him of the arrival of the tattered fragments 
of Middleton's Mary Washington, and that " Bird had 
them in hand." He went to see " the wreck," and took 
interest in the restoration. Lord Lyndhurst continually 
visited at Cary's, bringing American friends to see the 
portraits. He always asserted that Middleton's present- 
ment of Mary made her, " the grandest and most lovely 
woman I ever looked upon," and that " every lineament 
of Washington's countenance is seen and traced in that 
of his mother." He remarked to Robert Cary, " I know 
no other such instance." Lyndhurst was the greatest orator 
in the House of Peers, and held his mighty powers until 
past ninety years of age. When he brought Daniel 
Webster — a fellow majestic intellect, to see these portraits 
— he observed, " Mr. Carv has done more for America 
than any other man, in having been the means of securing 
to the world these portraits." On a later occasion, 
when Mary's portrait was with the others loaned to his 
lordship for the gratification of some American friends 
dining with him, he observed, " Americans will some day 
come by tens of thousands to look on that portrait of the 
most beautiful of all women." 




WASHINGTON. 



Reproduced by the . ■ ■ ■■ London. From the original Oil Painting- by fames '■ 




CHAPTER II. 

THE SHARPLES PORTRAITS BEFORE NEW YORK HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY. 

New York Historical Society minutes record as to the portrait loaned in 1854 — 
Secretary Warner details its reception before the Society — Letter of the 
venerable Dr. Van Pelt, who remembered Washington, and testifies to his 
portrait — Letter from Washington Irving, referring to its accuracy, and 
asking permission to engrave it for his contemplated " Life of Washington" — 
Letter from the Poets Bryant and Longfellow, expressing admiration of the 
portrait — Letters from Washington Irving urging purchase, and stating that 
money cost is guaranteed — Letter from Colden to Macready in England — 
Macready replies with full history of the portraits — Letter from Dickens and 
Thackeray. 

THE exhibit of the full-face portrait before the Historical 
Society was thus officially recorded in the Transactions of 
that body. 

" Historical Rooms, 
University of the City of New York, 

April 5, 1854. 
The portrait of Washington, kindly permitted to be 
exhibited at a meeting of the Historical Society last 
evening, attracted much attention, and was much admired 
by the members, who expressed great satisfaction in being 
afforded the opportunity of seeing this valuable picture. 

I thought it might be interesting to the possessors of this 
valuable picture, to extract from the minutes the remarks of 
Mr. Wetmore and the Rev. Dr. Van Pelt in alluding to the 
portrait. 

I am, very respectfully yours, 

Andrew Warner." 



i 4 HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS. 

" At a stated meeting of the New York Historical 
Society, held in the Chapel of the University of the City 
of New York, on Tuesday evening, April 4th, 1854, Mr. 
Wetmore called attention to a portrait of Washington 
hanging over the President's chair, stating that it possessed 
intrinsic evidence of being an original painting, and had 
been pronounced as such by our most distinguished artists, 
familiar with all the well-known portraits of Washington. 
It was said to be superior to the world-renowned portrait 
by Stuart, and that until within a short time all knowledge of 
the Sharpies portraits in oils was confined to such American 
tourists to England as carried letters to the owners. Its 
history is briefly this : Prior to the revolutionary war, the 
mercantile house of Robert Cary and Co., of London, it 
is well known, acted as agents and correspondents of 
Washington, then an officer in the British service. This 
portrait for many years hung over the mantelpiece in Mr. 
Cary's private office in London, and belonged recently to a 
Mr. Le Marchant, whose father was in the confidential 
employ of the firm. The portrait was painted by Mr. 
Sharpies, a relative of Mr. Cary, who came to this country 
on a tour for the benefit of his health, bringing with him 
orders and commissions to paint numerous portraits of 
officers and gentlemen for their families in England. It has 
been very kindly permitted to be exhibited to the Society, to 
gratify those who feel interested in such an historical relic. 

The venerable Rev. Dr. Van Pelt, who was present at 
this meeting of the New York Historical Society, said he 
had in his childhood the good fortune to spend some hours 
in the society of Washington, and after giving a detail of his 
appearance, he pronounced the portrait to be an excellent 
likeness of Washington as he remembered him. 
(Extract from the minutes.) 

Andrew Warner, Recording Secretary" 



TESTIMONY OF THE REV. DR. VAN FELT. 15 



The Rev. Dr. Van Pelt recorded as follows : — 

" Hammond Street, New York City, 

April 22, 1854. 

In compliance with request, I have the honour now to 
transmit my opinion of the portrait of Washington, which 
was exhibited in our New York Historical Society, at a 
regular meeting held in the University, on the evening of 
the 4th April last. 

It gives me pleasure to state that I had the satisfaction 
— I would add, the honour and happiness — in my youthful 
school-going days, after the war of the revolution, and 
previous to his inauguration as the first President of the 
United States, of seeing and spending part of a day in 
company with General George Washington, justly styled 
' the Great and Good Man.' 

He was indeed eminently so, in the various relations of 
domestic and public life, as also in his death. 

Taught from my earliest childhood to cherish and 
estimate highly the patriotism, principles, virtues, and 
character of Washington, in common with my countrymen, 
and having the privilege, I approached near to him, got by 
the side of him — he putting his arm around my neck, 
embraced me close to him, and talked to me ; taking the 
buttons of his military coat between my fingers, and intent 
in looking at him, I observed distinctly the features of his 
face — his bland, dignified, majestic countenance ; his erect, 
tall, towering person ; his graceful movements and amiable 
demeanour — so as even at present, in my advanced age, to 
perpetuate the knowledge, and leave in my mind and 
memory the impress of the contour of his face, his grave 
look, and stately appearance. Accordingly, in beholding 
the portrait as suspended in view of the members of the 
New York Historical Society, I pronounced it then, as I do 



16 LETTER OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 

now, an interesting picture of our immortal Washington, 
who, we are pleased to say, was ' First in war, first in peace, 
and first in the hearts of his countrymen ;' and that it is, 
according to my remembrance, a faithful, excellent, lifelike 
likeness of the Great Living Original, worthy to be carefully 
preserved, and highly valued. 

With best wishes, respectfully yours, 

P. J. Van Pelt, D.D." 

After seeing the portrait, Washington Irving thus wrote/ 

of it : — 

" Sunnyside, April 13, 1854. 

1 have seen the portrait of Washington by Sharpies. 
There is much more of life and animation than in that by 
Stuart, but the latter has more calm dignity. I should 
think it was taken several years previously, probably during 
the war, when Washington was leading a life of personal 
activity and mental excitement. 

The mouth is different from that by Stuart, and approaches 
more to the natural shape of that taken of him when he was 
forty years of age, by Peale. A set of artificial teeth, 
which I believe he did not wear until after the revolutionary 
war, altered the shape of his mouth, drew it down at the 
corners, and lengthened the upper lip. 

The Sharpies portrait gives a better idea of the innate 
energy of his character; which, after he laid by the 
sword and assumed the toga, may have been somewhat 
veiled by the sober decorums and restraint of official 
station. 

I think the portrait a very valuable one, and should like 
very much to have the privilege of having it engraved for 
the Life of Washington, should I ever complete and publish 
that work, which the booksellers have so often announced 



LETTER OF BRYANT AND LONGFELLOW. l? 



without my authority, and even before the plan of it had 
been turned in my mind. 

I am, my dear sir, with high respect, 

Your obliged and humble servant, 
/ Washington Irving." 

The poet Bryant also bore testimony thus : — 

" New York, April 26, 1854. 

I have seen the picture of Washington by Sharpies. It 
is a fine picture and most interesting, inasmuch as it 
represents Washington in the vigour of manhood, some 
years before Stuart's portrait of him was taken. The 
countenance expresses thought, resolution, sensibility, and 
a high degree of physical energy. 

I regard the discovery of the picture as an event of great 
importance. YV. C. Bryant." 

Two years later Longfellow wrote appreciatively thus : — 

"Cambridge, September 22, 1856. 
I have just returned from a long visit to the seaside, and 
find your friendly letter and the Sharpies portraits (small 
photos had been sent to Mr. Longfellow), and hasten to thank 
you for them, and to explain why I have not done so sooner. 
These portraits are very beautiful and very valuable. 
They are treasures which I highly prize, and which I shall 
guard with jealous care ; and, as you request, will ever 
respect your interests, and on no pretence allow them to go 
out of my house. 

If there was an artist here equal to the one who took 
the copies of the Sharpies pictures, you should have one of 
me in the same style. But alas ! that is not the case, and I 
shrink from subjecting myself to the process of Daguerre. 
With greatest regard, yours faithfully, 

Henry W. Longfellow." 
d 



1 8 LETTER FROM WASHINGTON IRVING TO COLD EN. 



Efforts were about this time made to purchase this portrait 
and hold it in America, but, as hereafter explained, a sale 
could not then be made. The Cary family had been advised 
to put the portraits in settlement, which tied them up for a 
time. Washington Irving thus urged the matter to P. M. 
Wetmore and Cadwallader Colden at the time : — 

" Sunnyside, April 13, 1854. 

Dear Mr. Wetmore, — I wish you would convey to the 
members of the Historical Society that Mr. Bryant and myself 
are equally anxious with them and others that these portraits 
and the Stuy vesant picture should not again leave the country. 
What, however, is there to do that has not been done ? 

Mr. Astor unavailingly stood forward as money sponsor, 
so that any idea of lack of funds being a difficulty is utterly 
erroneous. The owning family are described by Dr. Beale 
as ' English gentlefolks ;' and we can only hope that when 
the time comes for any disposal of the pictures, the spirit 
of that class may be evidenced. 

I coveted having the portraits engraved for my purposed 
Life, but see clearlv no such permission could be given. 
Respectfully, your humble servant, 

Washington Irving. 

P. M. Wetmore, Esq." 

Irving also addressed Mr. Cadwallader Colden, a 
prominent citizen of New York : — 

" My DEAR Colden, — It is indeed matter for national 
regret that the Sharpies Washington portrait cannot be 
allowed to rest in America. The Historical Society took it 
up in a very earnest way, and Dr. Beale, President of St. 
George's Society, helped ail he could ; but as explained to 
Mr. Astor and Mr. Wetmore, the pictures cannot be sold 
for many years. 



LETTER FROM COLD EN TO M ACRE AD Y. i 9 



Mr. Astor generously offered to be security in a large sum 
for the three portraits and the Stuyvesant Army Procession, 
or to deposit a sum to accumulate until a sale could be 
made ; but Mr. Astor's counsel advised that unless a price 
could now be agreed upon, any such course would be 
increasing the difficulty when the occasion may arise for the 
portraits' return to America. 

James K. Armstrong, on behalf of Mr. Astor, has done 

his utmost. Bryant, too, and Mr. Charles Leupp and 

myself concur that the owning family have done all in their 

power to meet our wishes for the pictures to be owqed 

on this side. All that we can hope for is that at some 

distant day this yearning of all patriots may be realized. 

My dear Colden, with high respect, 

Your faithful, humble servant, 

Washington Irving. 
Cadwallader Colden, Esq., 

President, Cambrian Society." 

Cadwallader Colden with like object thus addressed his 
friend Macready, the great tragedian, in 1856: — 

"My DEAR MACREADY, — Washington Irving, through 
Mr. Armstrong, has been told of the much trouble you have 
taken in seeing what chance exists for any negotiating the 
purchase of the Sharpies portraits of the Washingtons. 
You will understand Mr. Armstrong's prominence in it when 
I name to you that he is one of the Astor Executors, and 
gives care to the family property affairs ; he is also a warm 
friend of Irving. Both Mr. Astor and Mr. Aspinwall feared 
the difficulty could not at the moment be overcome ; but it 
is pleasant to learn that some years hence their possession 
and transference to this country, their only becoming home, 
is by no means an impossibility. 

You must have had several journeys on behalf of this 
mission. I will not call it a fruitless one, as it has made us 

D 2 



20 LETTER FROM MAC READY TO COI.DEX. 

acquainted with the obstructions, and, at the same time, 
the more than probability of the paintings being placed at 
this country's disposal at no very distant future. We are 
all much indebted to you, and I need not express the 
satisfaction we shall have in any definite arrangement for 
your many friends being honoured, educated, and delighted 
by your again holding its stage. Charles Leupp desires 
me to join his affectionate greeting with mine. 

Ever your friend, 

David C. Colden. 
W. C. Macready, London." 

Macready's deeply interesting reply was as follows : — 

" My dear COLDEN, — Our dinner to Thackeray, at 
the London Tavern, on his departure to you, was in 
every sense a superb affair, worthy of the guest. It 
did me good to be of the party, and make the trial of 
drawing myself out of my crushing sorrows. I had a 
quarter of an hour's talk with him before the company 
assembled, and used the occasion to explain my efforts 
to get hold of the Sharpies' Washington portraits. 
Thackeray will tell you they are owned by a friend of 
Charles Dickens, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey at 
Liverpool. Stanfield, Maclise, and myself were introduced 
by Dickens, and have all seen the pictures. Maclise says 
they are above mediocrity, and as is often the case, men of 
Sharpies' capacity seize a likeness more effectually than a 
really great painter. None of us have been able to trace many 
portraits by this said Sharpies ; there are, however, some 
known to Dilke of the Athenceum, and Jerdan of the Literary 
Gasette, a great authority, and who, writing me, says ' he is 
known chiefly through his portraits of Washington and his 
wife, and also for a lot of oil sketches of noted American 
women of the Washington Court, some of whom were 



REFERENCES TO CHARLES DICKENS. 



thorns in Martha's side. These sketches were brought 
home to England by Sharpies' widow, and though evi- 
dencing great ability, are little more than indications for 
designed portraits. It would seem that he " rubbed " these 
on the canvases as a speculation, hoping some day for 
orders to complete. The story told by the widow is that 
all were to have been worked up in their turn, but Lady 
Washington resolutely set her face against the whole lot, 
and that her husband had been most liberally rewarded in a 
money acknowledgment from the General, to whom he had 
given an assurance that he would not carry them any farther.' 
So says Jerdan, but we must remember he is a bit of a 
scandalmonger, especially in the case of so great a man. 
One of these outlines, said to be the portrait of General 
Hamilton's wife, and another believed to be the wife of 
' The Patroon ' of Albany, have since been worked up by 
Maclise, and more lovely women it would be difficult to 
dream of. If the beauties revolving in Washington Court, 
at Philadelphia and Mount Vernon, were as charming as 
Mrs. Hamilton and this said ' PatroonV wife are represented, 
there should be no cause for wonder at the fascination 
power of the since female generations of America. 

Wentworth Dilke, who was associated with Charles 
Dickens in starting the Daily News, has taken especial 
interest in hunting up memorials of Sharpies, but so far all 
he has told me is that ' he was a quiet gentleman, well 
conducted, a Jesuit who sought not fame, and known 
chiefly through his very effective portraits of the Wash- 
ingtons, also an admirable portrait of Priestley, painted in 
Philadelphia a year or two prior to his death. That his 
wife had brought to England unfinished portraits of Jefferson, 
the two Presidents, Adams and Madison, also of Hamilton 
and his lovely wife, and portraits of Robert Fulton and his 
wife, all outlined by him, but never completed.' Charles 



22 REFERENCES TO MACLISE AND CHARLES DICKENS. 



Knight says he knows of several heads by Sharpies, and 
that they evidence an artist of high merit in portraiture, 
though possibly unknown outside the walk of private 
connection. 

Dickens has talked with Christy, the great auctioneer in 
art, about him, and learns that ' he painted very real 
portraits, in their day esteemed powerful, so far as resem- 
blance to life was concerned ; but inasmuch as that period 
was rich to an extraordinary degree in portrait artists, none 
but names of highest gifts came to the fore. A time that 
boasts of Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, Opie, Lawrence, 
and such like, dropped lesser stars ; though to have been 
even an average man of such a day was to be an artist of 
more than capability, although possibly not ranking as 
a genius.' 

Stanfield and Maclise agree as to the portraits having at 
Mr. Cary's death suffered a good deal from storage in a 
lumber-room ; careful restoration has remedied this, and 
made them far better than Sharpies left them. Young, 
Wallack, and Power have seen them. Wallack is more 
than a mere amateur in art, and he says, ' They are the 
portraits history will hold to ! ' 

I would gladly have been of more help. I have made 
several journeys to Liverpool, but without succeeding. 
It is, however, satisfactory to know they are in safe keep- 
ing, and, as Washington Irving expresses it, ' they will come 
home some day or another.' Mrs. Hemans was charmed 
with all three. 

Emmett seems labouring under the feeling that more may 
have been done. My chief and uppermost vexation is that 
Irving should be frustrated in his wish to have them engraved 
for his Life of Washington. Here is real sorrow, but it 
cannot be avoided. 

How odd it is that these coveted pictures should be so 



RE AN d~ THE KEMBLE FAM1L Y ON THE PORTRAITS. 23 



much identified with actors ! Booth, when first playing at 
Covent Garden in 181 7, visited Mr. Cary, and knew the 
portraits well, as also did Charles Kean and the Kembles. 
Sharpies cultivated the friendship of stage professionals, 
and owned David Garrick's copy of Rowe's first edition 
of Shakespeare in six volumes, published in 1609 and 
the first biography. It was inscribed in Garrick's own 
hand, and he was very proud of its possession. John 
Kemble and Mrs. Siddons often brought friends to Mr. 
Cary in order to see the portraits, and always spoke of 
Washington as ' the Great Star of our Firmament.' 

I lead a very quiet evening life here, sticking to old 
classic writers, and revelling more than ever in the great 
master whose words we have so feebly endeavoured to 
illustrate. Thackeray is charged with an infinity of 
messages. 

Ever yours sincerely, 

W. C. Macready." 

Of eminent actors of our own time, Edwin Booth, 
Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, Genevieve Ward, and 
Mrs. John Drew have been warm adherents. Henry Irving, 
of England, is also numbered among those adopting the 
creed of their sure recognition as the true national pre- 
sentment. The veteran manager, McViccar, presented 
autotype copies to the Chicago Historical Society and other 
public institutions. One and all have patriotically pre- 
sented the autotype reproductions to public schools in 
unison with the wish expressed by the poet Longfellow. 

Dickens wrote, " I have had much pleasure in securing 
the good offices of Maclise, though the being successful is 
more due to Stanfield than my efforts. Certainly he has 
made pictures out of Sharpies' sketches of American women 
of Washington's time, remarkable for their beauty and grace. 



24 LETTER FROM DICKENS. 



Maclise has been interested in these charming subjects, and 
he certainly has done wonders with them. I did not see 
them until months afterhe had taken them in hand. He calls 
them his ' American blazing beauties.' As to the Sharpies 
portraits of Washington and his wife. When in Boston I 
saw the portraits by Stuart, so also others most in favour 
with American friends. None, however, excepting the 
Sharpies, convey to my mind his capacity, benignity, dignity, 
or grace. These portraits are unknown in America, but 
when the people see them and are left to judge for them- 
selves, they are safe to accept the Sharpies as their 
national portrait. They care not as to the nationality of the 
artist, what they want is reality. When Washington was in 
the flesh his country had just secured its national indepen- 
dence. Art was comparatively unknown, and it is fortunate 
there are existing such presentments of the nation's founder; 
equally satisfactory is it they have until now remained in 
England. They would have been kiln-dried by ' furnace ' 
power had they re-crossed the Atlantic. In good time the 
Americans will learn that the unnatural dry heat of their 
stoves in winter is wholly destructive of all paintings as of 
the fair countenances of their lovely women. Such portraits 
as those Washingtons are the charge of the whole human 
race, and should be cared for as the heritage of future ages. 
They should be placed out of the power of injury by fire or 
heat. A few winter seasons in an American private house 
would finish them and render them the utter wrecks others 
have already become. 

"Charles Dickens." 

Thackeray also expressed himself : — 

" I have only seen engravings of the Stuart portrait. It 
can never rank with the Sharpies. It has too much 
austerity, and is wanting in life. 

"W. M. Thackeray." 




CHAPTER III. 

The three portraits return to New York in 1882, and are received at Century 
and Union League Clubs— David Huntington, Eastman Johnson, J. G. A. 
Ward, and Launt Thompson certify to their authenticity — The historian 
Dunlap and his account of the pictures — The New York Evening Post 
commends them to public notice — Ralph Waldo Emerson testifies and 
names Middleton's portrait of Mary Washington, to see which his efforts 
when in England were ineffectual — Letters from Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
Elihu Burritt and Albert Gallatin — Speech of Daniel Webster on the 
portraits. 

The deep interest excited in 1854 by the exhibition in 
New York of the first portrait, the full-face, and which, after 
remaining nearly two years in America, had been returned 
to England, rather increased than otherwise the general 
enthusiasm in the subject. Numerous applicants were ever 
afterwards seeking the owners in order to get a sight of it. 
This one picture had become free for disposal had it been 
desired ; the other, the profile, and also that of Martha 
Washington, were not free for disposal until 1882, when 
all three were brought out to America. The three 
paintings, and also the Peter Stuyvesant, had been repro- 
duced by the Autotype Company in London, and to meet 
the public wish these autotypes were offered for sale by 
subscription. On the three pictures arriving in New York, 
the first to welcome them was the Century Club, to which 
they were formally introduced by Charles Loring Brace, 

E 




26 TESTIMONIALS TO PORTRAITS' AUTHENTICITY. 

one whose works of philanthropy are known throughout the 
world. David Huntington, President of the National 
Academy of Design ; Eastman Johnson, the eminent portrait 
painter; J. G. A. Ward and Launt Thompson, the most 
gifted sculptors of the day, received them with great honour. 
All the leading artists of the city visited them during their 
few days rest at the Century. The members of the great 
publishing firm of Harpers were early to view them ; so also 
among the first arrivals was the accomplished scholar and 
true gentleman, Charles Scribner, the eminent publisher. 

After leaving the Century Club, the following official 
announcement appeared. The document was kindly volun- 
teered by the distinguished artists whose signatures are 
appended. Such a document tells its own tale. 

" In order for these portraits being exhibited to the 

American nation in becoming form, the eminent portrait 

painters and sculptors whose names are appended (than 

whom none higher could be cited) speak authoritatively as 

to the originality and authenticity of these historical 

works : — 

'New York, April 12, 1882. 

The Sharpies portraits of Washington, a full-face picture 
and a profile, and that of Lady Washington, all three 
painted in oils and exhibited for several months in New 
York during 1882, bear every evidence of having been 
painted from the life. The full-face portrait was exhibited 
before the Historical Society of New York in 1854. The 
authenticity of these paintings has never been questioned 
by artists or others competent to form correct judgment. 
(Signed) D. Huntington, 

President of the National Academy of Design. 

Eastman Johnson. 
J. G. A. Ward. 
Launt Thompson.'" 



NEW YORK TRIBUNE ON THE PORTRAITS. 27 



From the Century Club, the three honoured paintings 
made a progress by special invitation to the Union League 
Club, where a Gallery Room had been set apart for their 
sole reception, the Peter Stuyvesant picture accompanying 
them. On arrival at these stately quarters they were 
formally and reverently received by S. P. Avery, Trustee of 
the New York National Museum, Eastman Johnson, and 
W. C. Riddle on behalf of the Club ; Eastman Johnson 
decorating them with his own deft hands in festoons of 
maroon cloth hangings, and with a refinement of taste 
peculiarly his own. John Joseph Harper, and each member 
of the Harper house, and J. W. Parsons, the talented head 
of the Fine Art Department in Harper's vast establishment, 
paid them visits of honour and admiration, and at times the 
gallery of their abode was crowded with visitors. 

During the time the portraits of Washington and his wife 
Martha were on exhibition in the Gallery of the Union 
League Club, the New York Tribune thus addressed itself 
to the subjects, their history, and the life of the artist 
who executed them : — 

" Although there is a difference in the spelling of the name, 
we believe there is no reason to doubt that the Sharpies 
who painted these portraits is the James Sharpless of whom 
our homespun Vasari ' William Dunlap gives so good an 
account in his ' History of the Arts of Design in America.' 
Dunlap tells us that James Sharpless ' was an English- 
man, and being of a Roman Catholic family, was educated 
in France, and intended, like John Kemble, for the priest- 
hood ; but, like John, he preferred the fine arts. He 
married before coming to this country, and on the first 
attempt at passage was taken prisoner by the French, and 
with his wife and three children was carried to France, and 
there kept a prisoner for some months. When liberated, 

E 2 



2 S AMERICAN HISTORIAN DUNLAP ON THE PORTRAITS. 



he made a more successful effort, and landed in New York 
about 1798. He visited all the cities and towns of the 
United States, carrying letters to persons distinguished, 
either military, civil or literary, with a request of painting 
their portraits for his collection. This being granted, and 
the portrait finished in about two hours, the likeness gene- 
rally induced an order for a copy, and brought as sitters all 
who saw it. His price for the profile was fifteen dollars, 
and for the full-face, never so good, twenty dollars. He 
painted immense numbers, and most of them very valuable 
for characteristic portraiture. His headquarters was New 
York, and he generally travelled in a four-wheeled carriage 
of his own contrivance, which carried the whole family and 
all his implements, and was drawn by one large horse. He 
was a plain, well-disposed man, and accumulated property 
by honest industry and uncommon facility with his materials. 
Mr. Sharpless was a man of science and a mechanician as 
well as a painter. 

In the first volume of the Hosack and Francis 
"Medical and Philosophical Register" will be found a 
paper on steam carriages, confirming this character. Mr. 
Sharpless had acquired property without meanness, and 
looked to the enjoyment of easy circumstances in old age, 
when he died suddenly at the age of sixty, in New York, of 
an ossification of the heart, and was buried in the cemetery 
of the Roman Catholic chapel in Barclay Street. His 
widow, her daughter and youngest son returned to England, 
and long resided near Bath, after selling the distinguished 
heads, among which I had the honour to be numbered, at 
public auction. The two sons, James and Felix, both prac- 
tised their father's art in America. Felix resided and died 
in North Carolina.' Dunlap, vol. ii. pp. 71, 72. 

Dunlap's account of Sharpless runs nearly parallel with 
that given by the owners of the portraits. The chief dis- 



NEW YORK E VEXING POST CRITICISMS. 



crepancy, indeed the only serious one, between the two 
accounts is in the date of the artist's first visit to this 
country. The owners say 1794, and Dunlap says 1798, 
four years later, and only one year before the death of 
Washington. Further, the owners say that Sharpies paid 
us a second visit in 1809, and that he died February 26th, 
181 1. Dunlap was a careless writer, and we believe is not 
much depended on for accuracy in details. The account 
given by the owners of the portraits seems to be founded on 
a better knowledge of the subject, and to be entitled to con- 
fidence. The difference in the spelling of the name is not of 
much importance. In Americawe are more precise and literal 
in our pronunciation of proper names and of words in general 
than the English. The impossible old story of the American 
who asked if Lord Chol-mon-de-ly (pronounced Chumley, 
and not in all syllables, as our countryman gave it) was at 
home, and was told by the porter that he was not, but that 
some of his pe-o-ple were, will illustrate the point. When 
Sharpies was here, we perhaps read his name Sharpless, 
and then wrote it so — a process going on before our eyes 
on business signs all over the city. Dunlap does not tell 
us why Sharpies came to this country, but the owners of 
the portraits give the object of his journey, that he came 
for the benefit of his health, and that being a friend of Mr. 
Cary, of the house of Cary and Co., merchants, of London, 
who before the War of Independence acted as agents and 
correspondents of Washington, then an officer in the British 
service, he was well provided with orders and commissions 
to paint portraits of officers and gentlemen for their families 
left at home." 

The public journals of New York expressed the general 
gratification of the citizens at the opportunity of seeing the 
pictures. To reproduce the sentiments of a few is to make 



;o NE W YORK TRIBUNE'S CRITICISM OF THE PORTRAITS. 



known the feeling of all. Take for example the follow- 
ing :— 

{Front the New York Evening Post.) 

" Probably the fact of the existence of the Sharpies pictures will 
be a surprise to most Americans of the present generation, but for 
many years past those best acquainted with the portraiture of the 
Father of his Country have either seen the works themselves or 
have otherwise known that in an English home were carefully 
preserved original profile and full-face portraits of General Wash- 
ington, and one of Lady Washington, painted from life in oils, by 
Sharpies, of which numerous crayon drawings extant by the same 
artist are reduced copies. 

Apart from their immense value as portraiture, the works are 
interesting examples of painting — excellent in modelling and 
colour, indubitably life-like, most solid and clear in painting, and 
with really beautiful management of shadow, especially in the 
profiles. The full-face portrait is in military dress, and in the 
features is some corresponding elevation of expression — the majesty 
and high dignity of the accepted type. The profile of Washington, 
in plain clothes, is simpler, less glorified, and thereby strangely 
attractive. Mrs. Washington is quietly and gravely clad, in sweet 
matronly fashion, her dress minutely and delightfully given." 



(From the New York Tribune) 

" As everything connected with the early history of the arts in 
this country is of interest to our people, these Sharpies pictures, 
historically, must be reckoned of inestimable value. As paintings, 
too, they have been enthusiastically received by such judges as 
Mr. Daniel Huntington, President of the American Academy of 
Design, and Mr. Eastman Johnson and other leading artists. To 
our own apprehension it would seem that the difference between 
these portraits of Washington and the one in the Boston Museum 
of Fine Arts — a difference plain to every one, and so great as to 
have misled, apparently, both Mr. Irving and Mr. Bryant in judging 
of the time when they were painted — is owing merely to the 
difference in the character of the artists. The Sharpies portraits 
are painted by a man in whom the mechanical, the technical, part 
of his art had always the upper hand. They are neatly, carefully 



Y 



NEW YORK INDEPENDENT AXD NEW YORK TIMES. 



j' 



painted. Dunlap's opinion that the full-face portraits by Sharpies 
were never so good as his profiles, is not, to our mind, borne out 
by the present pictures. The profile of Mrs. Washington is 
certainly very clearly and even beautifully painted, and we are so 
glad to have it that we hardly wish to own to ourselves that it is 
wanting in life. It has exactly the immobility that is found in 
some of the early Italian portraits of the Umbrian and Florentine 
schools. All objections apart, what would we not give for such a 
portrait of Washington's mother ? This calm, sensible, intelligent 
face, in which kindliness and firmness are equally conjoined, gives 
us a much more satisfactory notion of the wife of Washington than 
the Boston portrait. 

The full-face portrait is an alert, characteristic head, and gives 
us an entirely different side of Washington from the one represented 
in Stuart's picture. As we have said, it seems to us to be painted 
in a different manner, too, from what we find in the profile. We 
cannot better express our own judgment of the picture as a portrait 
than by repeating the well-chosen words of Bryant : ' The coun- 
tenance expresses thought, resolution, sensibility, and a high degree 
of physical energy.' " 

{From the Independent.) 

" The Sharpies portraits of Washington and his wife prove more 
and more attractive as the effectiveness of their autotype duplicates 
becomes more known and their truthfulness realized. Our people 
need time to accustom themselves to the difference between the 
Stuart and other old familiar portraits, and the Sharpies new 
revelation. True it is that they have always been known to 
certain of our literary visitors to England, and the reduced copies 
executed by Sharpies himself, during his several stays in America, 
have been generally familiar ; yet these oil paintings, first exhibited 
in New York in 1854, and now again allowed to gratify all patriots, 
seem to come upon us as a delight and surprise. We tenaciously 
pin our faith on Stuart and Peale, but, nevertheless, confess great 
allegiance to Sharpies. Some of our ablest critics affirm that as 
time progresses future generations will adopt the rendering of 
Sharpies as certainly that most to be desired. Few will deny but 
that these heads of the Father of the Country must win their way 
to all hearts. Everybody sees reality in them, and the truest 
evidence of their being painted from the life is their speaking 



32 AMERICAN PRESS COMMENDS THE PORTRAITS. 



vitality and vigour. Washington, doubtless, gave more actual 
sittings for these portraits than for any others, and the testimony 
of Mr. Custis, Mrs. Washington's son, in these emphatic words, 
' The family always regarded the Sharpies portraits as by far the 
best and truest representations,' is decisive. No other painter 
succeeded in giving us his calm dignity in union with his known 
determination and vigour of mind. Sharpies gives us the Military 
Chieftain, the Patriot, the Statesman, the benign Christian Gentle- 
man, all combined. Boston now for a short time receives these 
pictures, and will, doubtless, take up more than its proportion of 
the autotypes." 

{From the Nciv York Times.) 

" The exhibition of the historic Sharpies portraits of George and 
Martha Washington has been enjoyed by a great many persons of 
intelligence and artistic tastes. These remarkable portraits have 
remained the property of English owners ever since the time of 
their execution. Washington Irving, John Jacob Astor, and 
others endeavoured to purchase them, but succeeded only in 
having them brought to this country for a few months in 1S54, at 
which time they were exhibited under the auspices of the New 
York Historical Society. The intrinsic merit of these portraits 
is obvious to any intelligent beholder. Irving held them in very 
high esteem, and in a letter now in existence, George W. P. Custis, 
Washington's adopted son, says : ' The Sharpies portraits are the 
most truthful likenesses of Washington ever taken.' There are 
two pictures of Washington, one a full portrait and the other a 
profile, and naturally there is a great diversity of opinions as to 
the relative merits of the two. Painters and art connoisseurs seem 
to incline to the profile, possibly because no other original portrait 
of the kind is known to have existed. Comparisons between the 
Sharpies and Stuart portraits of Washington are very favourable 
to the former. The portrait of Martha Washington is a superb and 
ideal picture of that revered lady. Artists and critics have, with 
scarcely an exception, expressed the warmest admiration for it." 

The tone of the public press universally accorded with 
that of the many of America's greatest statesmen, poets, 
and literates who have from time to time visited these por- 
traits in their home in England. Among the number have 



RALPH EMERSON'S LETTERS ON THE PORTRALTS. 



33 



been Albert Gallatin, Daniel Webster, Washington Irving 
Bryant, Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and numerous 
others. The nation's essayist thus referred to what he 
styled " these great national paintings :" — 

" I would willingly have crossed the Atlantic, if only to 
look on these portraits so priceless to our people. They 
are, indeed, our true Washingtons. Future ages will glory 
in their existence. There are those who assert & that 
' veneration ' is quitting our national character, fickleness 
taking its place. If so, it is difficult of explanation, save 
through the frequent changes of government. Of this we 
may be certain, that whatever occasional aberrations may 
be manifested, the loyal and good of our people will never 
swerve in their devotion to him who must ever be the corner- 
stone of our fabric, and whose star will burn more and more 
resplendent as ages develop. 

It has not fallen to my lot to get a look at the portrait of 
Washington's mother, and which I believe is a fine picture. 
I had always been under the belief that it was painted by 
Sharpies, and owned by the same family as possess the 
portraits of our first President and his wife. Such is not 
the case. The portrait of the mother of Washington, 
though some eighty years ago owned by the same branch 
of the Cary family as possessed the Sharpies portraits, has 
since passed away to a younger branch, and I have been 
unable to trace it. There is, however, no doubt as to its 
existence. Many of our people who know the owning 
family get access to its abode, which I hear is in Northamp- 
tonshire. Washington's mother's portrait, painted by an 
English officer named Middleton, must not be mixed up 
with the American female beauties outlined by Sharpies, 
and, so far as four or five are concerned, finished bv the 
eminent English painter, Maclise, and which are in the 
family here owning the Sharpies Washington portraits. 

F 



34 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE ON THE PORTRAITS. 

These portraits must some day return to us. Well will 
it be for our women to see and know Martha Washington 
in the faithfulness she is rendered by Sharpies, to realize 
that housewifery is a great duty, and that in her day it was 
deemed as creditable for women to spin and weave, as it 
was in the days of King Solomon, who in the Book of 
Proverbs describes an honourable woman : ' She layeth her 
hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.' 'She 
looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not 
the bread of idleness.' Or in the days when Homer made 
the use of the distaff and loom the employment of royal 
women : — 

' Alcandra, consort of his high command, 

A golden distaff gave to Helen's hand ; 

And that rich vase, with living sculpture wrought, 

Which, heaped with wool, the beauteous Philo brought. 

The silken fleece, impurpled for the loom, 

Recalled the hyacinth in vernal bloom.' ' 
Nathaniel Hawthorne has written of them to General 
Cass, in 1854 : — 

" My dear General Cass, — Thanks to Ticknor, I 
have had a long two hours with Sharpies' beautiful portraits 
of Washington and Martha, in the quiet home where they 
live, seemingly as fresh as in the year of their execution at 
Mount Vernon. No wonder at Irving's entrancement, even 
under the distracting thought of such treasures being lost 
to their own country, their only fitting home. Our Boston 
Stuarts lose much of their charm when contrasted with 
these realistic, though possibly less artistic canvases. 
No man or woman ever had such China rose cheeks as 
Stuart bestowed on George and Martha. Such high 
colouring is outrageous. Sharpies may not have been a 
great painter, and he seems only to have been known in 
England through his American work, but our people will 



LETTER FROM ELTHU BURRITT ON THE PORTRAITS. 35 

bless the memory of Mr. Cary, who sent him out to paint 
Washington ; and unborn generations will render him 
homage, for he has bequeathed them by far the best 
portrait of him whose fame and patriotism must fill the 
whole world to the dwarfing every of the greatest charac- 
ters in history. At Sharpies' death his wife carried to 
England numerous outline and unfinished canvases of 
lovely women, most of whom he met at Mount Vernon, 
at balls in Philadelphia, at the Patroon van Ransalaer's 
at Albany, and Chief Justices Marshall and Kent. Mean, 
censorious scandal-mongers have hinted at their frequent 
presence as the reverse of agreeable to Martha, but beauty 
ofttimes outlives envy. A lot of these canvas indications 
were brought to England by Sharpies' wife at his death. 
Some are skeletons of portraits, others more advanced, but 
all much eaten by cockroaches during the long sea voyage, 
and when lying unclaimed in the English Custom House. 
These heads should be finished by a capable artist, as there 
is in many of them sufficient for facial perfectitude. Some 
display great loveliness, and all evidence that infinitude of 
womanly beauty and force of character marking the dames 
most in vogue at the Court of Mount Vernon. The 
President clearly appreciated good looks, and Martha herself 
had an eye in the right vein, evidenced in the noble stature 
and bearing of her husband." 

Elihu Burritt, the philanthropist and apostle of peace, 
formerly Consul at Birmingham, and known as the "American 
blacksmith," author of " The Mission of Great Sufferings," 
" Visits to the Black Country," and other works on English 
country life, worshipping at the shrine of these portraits, 
thus recorded his impressions : — 

"A helpful and most kind introduction from Lord Sandon 
has given me the happiness and great privilege of an entire 

F 2 



36 ELIHU BURRITT'S LETTER CONTINUED. 

week in the cultured home at New Brighton, Cheshire, 
where dwells the accomplished owner of the Sharpies famed 
portraits of Washington. Near, indeed, are these to the 
heart of every American who has seen these inestimable 
works. I failed not in an almost unbroken audience during 
my stay. I felt, as it were, spellbound to the dining-room 
in which they hang, apparently searching all visitors with 
inquisitive glance as to whether of the new nationality away 
over the seas. It is beyond me to describe what I felt in 
the, to me, living presence of him whose fame is as wide as 
the world, and into whose form and presence God breathed 
the breath of an utterly unselfish public and private life. 
The words of Fox, uttered in the British Parliament in 1794, 
that ' he was wiser in his own policy than the ministers of 
his own country, or of any of the European Courts, and, as 
the illustrious man deriving honour less from the splendour 
of his situation than from the dignity of his mind, before 
whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance, and 
all the potentates of Europe become little and contemptible,' 
-^rose to memory, as did the burning exultation of Erskine 
only a year later, in a letter to Washington, yielding, if 
possible, a greater tribute to his august and immortal name. 
' I have,' wrote Erskine, ' a large acquaintance among the 
most valuable and exalted classes of men ; but you are the 
only human being for whom I ever felt an awful reverence. 
I sincerely pray God to grant a long and serene evening to 
a life so gloriously devoted to the universal happiness of the 
world.' 

Before seeing these Sharpies' creations, my imagination 
dwelt only on the Stuart portraits, the delight of my child- 
hood, and cause of more than one pilgrimage to Boston in 
later life. But the Sharpies haunt my memory as the 
Boston pictures never can again. The Sharpies are more 
convincingly real, undoubtedly much more majestic. If, 



ELIHU BURRITT'S LETTER CONTINUED. 37 



as some critics assume, the artist had not the technical 
skill, he clearly had a higher power of impressing than our 
Stuart ; and yet, withal, they decidedly confirm the Boston 
portraits. Stuart's unnaturally high colouring evidences that 
the artist was indulging in a freak of fancy, whereas the 
Englishman was matter of fact, and yet thoroughly held in 
hand all the embodied dignified mien and greatness of his 
illustrious sitter. There is a grandness in the Sharpies, a 
satisfaction in full, not to be found in the work of any of 
the artists who tried their hands on the Founder of the 
Republic. 

Colonel Trumbull, himself an artist, and who may possibly 
have seen the portraits during execution at Mount Vernon, 
acknowledged their great superiority, and looked on their 
transfer to England as a calamity. Trumbull endeavoured 
to persuade Lady Washington to appeal to Mr. Cary for 
duplicates. Her refusal is explained in the very natural 
desire not to lower the originals in his estimate ; her own 
portrait being a souvenir from herself. Sharpies had 
returned to England ; access to his original productions 
would be opportune. The money cost was collected ; but 
Martha remained inexorable, and Mr. Cary may have been 
indisposed to gratify ' rebels.' 

During my more than pleasant week's housing and 
constant associateship with these our should-be national 
belongings, I always felt they looked upon me as 
Columbia hailing, and as imploringly declarative of captivity. 
It should not, therefore, occasion surprise that Washington 
Irving, Bryant, Longfellow, Fenimore Cooper, Hawthorne, 
Emerson, Wendel Holmes, Ward Beecher, and others of 
our poets and literature-makers have, one and all, felt 
their delight tinctured with sorrow when face to face with 
these inestimable treasures. The truth that they are away 
from home, is a sad reality forced on every American 



3 S LETTER OF ALBERT GALLATLN. 

heart. And yet how deeply grateful should the whole world 
(for Washington in all times will be its foremost and 
greatest character) be for the existence of these canvases, 
which the climate of England has retained in perfect 
health and freshness. There is thorough honest work and 
absence of art tricks in all three of the portraits. Sharpies 
felt the greatness of his subject. He did his best, and it 
was more than a good best. As to Martha, in her simple 
home garb, she is what she wished to be, and what she was, 
a pattern to American women in all time. If ever they get 
back to their native land, it will be well if like care befall 
them ; above all, let no ' demon stove ' be tolerated to dry 
up their blood." 

When on his last mission to London in 1827-28, and which 
resulted in his obtaining full indemnification to American 
Southern citizens for injuries sustained in the violation of 
the Treaty of Ghent, Albert Gallatin tried to get permission 
for copies to be made, evidenced by the following letter to 
his friend King, who was, at the time, head of Columbia 
College, New York. Gallatin was President of the New 
York Historical Society. 

" My dear King, — I have twice seen the portraits of 
Washington by Sharpies. Mr. Cary, the owner, is most 
kind in allowing all Americans access to them. His 
deceased brother acted as Washington's agent, and esteemed 
him to a degree amounting to hero-worship. It is believed 
that Washington's English confidential relations were in 
Cary's keeping, and that he rendered him great political 
service in Europe, hence the more than friendship. He 
it was who traced treachery to its source, Cary getting 
hold of private letters written by General Gates and others 
to Genet. 



GALLATIN'S ENDEAVOURS TO OBTAIN COPIES. 



39 



It is clear to my mind that Martha Washington designed 
these portraits for British possession, and that she had 
a hand in Sharpies being sent out to paint them. There 
never has been the smallest chance of their return to 
America, and my firm belief is that Martha quietly but 
determinedly opposed the proposal for copies being made. 

What a glory for our New York Historical Society if we 
could persuade the present representative, Cary, to allow it 
to have copies. I am trying my best, but you had better 
not name this at any meeting. 

My dear King, sincerely yours, 

Albert Gallatin." 

No higher homage can be rendered the Sharpies portraits 
than that bestowed by the most eminent of American 
statesmen, he whose greatness is so interwoven with the 
nation's dignity, and the occasion of whose death seemed 
as if some grand governing member of a system were 
stricken from its orbit, leaving emptiness and confusion 
where before was fulness of strength and controlling power. 
In the character of Daniel Webster's mind, few statesmen 
whom the world has seen could be regarded as of his type ; 
but an intellect like his, Milton's mighty hand has dragged 
into council when he says : — 

" With grave 
Aspect he rose ; and in his rising seemed 
A Pillar of State. Deep on his front engraven 
Deliberation sate, and publick care ; 
And princely counsel in his visage shone 
Majestic ****** sage he stood, 
With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
The weight of empires ; and his look 
Drew audience and attention still as night 
Or summer's noontide air." 



4 o DANIEL WEBSTER'S OPINION ON THE PORTRAITS. 

Webster visited England in 1839. Speaking at a dinner of 
the Royal Agricultural Society, the illustrious orator said : — 

" I have seen your great farms, the noble stock they 
breed and rear. I have seen England's rural life, and 
learned to love it. In America we want more beauty about 
our homes, and more real love for the country. I shall 
return overwhelmed at the deficiencies of memory to retail 
the impress of the many thousands of delightful localities 
of England. My mind is crowded out with the recollection 
of the places sacred to Liberty. Dear Old London ! Its 
quaint Tower and surroundings, its history ! Westminster 
Abbey is overwhelming — not only for what it is, but 
for what it is not. Smithfield, too, is full of glory. 
If ever Jacob's ladder rested upon earth, it was there, 
where bloody Mary made it the gate of heaven for so 
many martyrs. Bunhill Fields, I was too good a Puritan 
not to go there. I wanted to stand where Bunyan, Owen, 
Goodwin, and Defoe were buried. A visit to England 
is an education for youth ; it furnishes matter for thought 
in future life, and teaches what so few understand, 
how to grow old decently. An ignorant, uncultivated old 
man is a poor affair ; the tailor can pad out his wasted form, 
but nothing except early acquirements and good sentiments 
can make fine old age. In England our young people see 
attention paid to age and position; nowhere can the 
proprieties of life be so well learned. I trust England will 
graft on youthful visitants from America a little of its 
people's veneration. 

It has been my privilege to visit a peaceful home where 
lives, in canvas life delineation, the man whose purity and 
grratness must fill the universe until the world shall be no 
more. Washington is there — and to the life — through the 
power of the painter Sharpies. I have visited the shrine with 
a batch of youngsters ; all are better for the pilgrimage." 




WIFE OF GENERAL HAMILTON. 

NEE SCHUYLER. 



Reproduced by the Autotype Company, London. From the original Oil Painting fa Sharpies. 




CHAPTER IV. 

Cary and Co., London, Washington's agents — Robert Cary more than a friend 
— Washington's fondness for English tripe- — Letter from Washington ex- 
pressing his own and Mrs. Washington's feeling in regard to the portraits, 
and as not favouring their being duplicated — Sharpies formally introduced 
to Washington in Philadelphia by English Minister — Stays with the 
younger Franklin — Washington's great kindness — Introduced to Hamilton, 
who becomes his patron and friend — Emerson's efforts to see the portrait of 
Mary Washington duplicated — Artist life in New York — Voyage up the 
Hudson in 1809. 

The origin and growth of the more than friendship between 
Cary and Washington has been shown ; how when Wash- 
ington was serving as an English officer, Cary became his 
agent in London, his firm holding from many officers and 
their families, commissions of like kind. It is in no way 
strange that, out of business transactions of mutual depend- 
ence, friendships sprung up between the parties, having 
the ultimate effect of merging the mere mercantile agency 
duties with ties of closest family association and confidence. 
Sharing the lot of other illustrious men, the world's great 
patriot had secret enemies, puny as they were. Cary, as 
the friend of Burke, and enjoying the confidence of public 
men in Europe, laid bare their machinations. 

Old Custom House records showthat Cary and Co. received 
produce from over twenty families, many of them English 
officers who had relinquished their military callings, and in 
numerous instances had laid hold of the plough instead. 

G 



42 PARTICULARS AS TO ROBERT CARY. 

Others had adopted mercantile pursuits, as in the case 
of Barclay and Co., of New York, one of the oldest 
firms thus originally springing out of soldier origin. Mr. 
Barclay had held an officer's commission, and at the 
time there was quite a number of gentlemen sitting at the 
desk in " counting-houses " — offices had not then obtained 
admission into the vernacular of New York — and who, from 
varying causes, and under specially occurring opportunities, 
had with honour melted down their swords. The English 
War Office regulations did not then allow any donning of 
military uniform at the bidding good-bye to the service. 
There could be no dressing up with gold lace, or 
" buckling on of a rapier," after the relinquishment fiat 
had gone forth. Soldiering meant fighting with designated 
instruments of warfare, not with the goose-quill. In New 
Orleans there were half a dozen " old soldier firms," as 
they were characteristically nicknamed, and in Charleston 
several. Richmond, in Virginia, boasted of several of the 
new order; and it is an evidence of Washington's steadfast- 
ness of character and adherence to uninterrupted friendship, 
that through life he stuck to Cary and Co., in London, and 
to Barclay and Co., of New York ; the one for the con- 
version of his tobaccos into hard dollars, and their due 
and safe transmission to his clutch, the latter for their 
transport over the seas in " good and safe bottoms." 

Good Robert Cary was of the old-fashioned type. He 
managed all correspondence with clients in America in 
proper form and good style, and never huckstered in the 
matter of commissions. Copying-books had not in those 
days been evoluted. Fine thick water-lined laid foolscap 
was the medium of communication. None of your miserable 
modern paper from straw, but manufactured of linen rags 
and none other ; free of slippery gloss, tempting the pen 
into tautologous meandering ; each sheet bearing the 



WASHINGTON ORDERS TRIPE FOR CARY. 43 

maker's " water-mark " duly recorded thereon, as evidence 
of its worth in durability and toughness. " Whatman and 
Co," of Kentish renown, led the van of " true foolscap." 
Robert Cary and Co., and their ilk, would have no other ; 
and each recurring spring, as a good ship was " entered 
out " for New York, a ream of this coveted papyrus was 
sent to Colonel Washington, with a supply of quill pens, 
and two pounds of sealing-wax of no other brand than 
Walkden and Co. Ink, too, there went, of famed fabricate, 
and three bundles of pink tape wherewith to tie the Colonel's 
bundles of documents. The list shows that a packet of 
" pounce " was included in the annual requirement. It will 
puzzle hurried men of to-day to translate " pounce." It 
was an article of finely granulated sand, for dusting on 
manuscript to prevent blotting — blotting-paper had not then 
sprung into life ; and the head of the new nation was a man 
of almost unique care and neatness in all appertaining to 
his calligraphy. Robert Cary, to supply such wants, did 
not go into the next street to a stationer's shop ; he opened 
direct communication with this notable J. Whatman, who, 
after specifying the weight per ream, sent it " up to 
London" by the weekly carrier. 

But there were divers other things to be assembled for 
these annually recurring shipments. Home gastronomic 
comforts had to be thought of. Like Meg and Trotty 
Veck in Dickens' " Goblin Story of the Chimes," the General 
had a penchant for tripe. So important was the delicacy 
in his and Lady Washington's eyes, that Robert Cary was 
specially charged to ship him on one occasion no less a bulk 
than three huge earthen vessels, each of which is ordered to 
be "wicker bound," and recased in a cask to guard against 
fracture and spilling the precious contents. Cary, it is seen 
from Washington's warm acknowledgment, had been in the 
habit of sending him presents of the coveted Bristol pickled 

G 2 



44 LETTER FROM WASHINGTON TO CARY. 

article. Two such jars had recently made safe travel to 
Mount Vernon, and as the Duke of Wellington would have 
done in like position of long distance from the provision- 
ing base, the wary warrior looked ahead, backed by an 
admission made in explanation of the large consumption, 
that his molars were out of gear, three other such jars are 
requisitioned. The taste for pickled tripe of Bristol cure 
had been introduced from the West India Islands into New 
Orleans and other places. Quite a commerce had grown 
up in it, and among the sugar-planters it was a standing 
dish. The largest stone jars held about two gallons ; there 
was a special pottery at Bristol for their make, and each jar 
had the curer's name burnt in on the frontal, in order to 
make sure of the contents being genuine. There were 
several favourite brands largely consumed in the West 
Indies ; that of " Hamlin," brought to Barbadoes by the 
ships of Thomas Daniel and Sons, was the quality and 
brand preferred of Washington. Gradually, as there arose 
fondness for this tripe, direct imports occurred, and 
other English tripe-makers tried their hands ; but for a 
century or more " Bristol tripe" held its way against all 
comers and home fabricators. New York and Massachusetts 
men went into the curing, but the oversea article defied 
them until cruel customs duties stepped in and ruthlessly 
swept away the monopoly. 

The following highly characteristic letter of Washington, 
thanking his friend for a present of two huge jars of tripe, 
ordering as matter of business a further supply of the 
succulent dainty, declining on behalf of his wife and himself 
any meddling with duplicates of his or her portraits, and 
expressing their united opinions that the Sharpies portraits 
are the best ever executed, is of deepest interest : — 

" Dear Cary, — Mrs. Washington joins me in warm 



WASHINGTON'S OPINION OF THE PORTRAITS. 45 

thanks to you for your considerate present of two 
large stone jars of pickled tripe, which reached Mount 
Vernon in perfect condition. I must ask you to arrange 
for four similar jars in wicker basket casing, packed in outer 
cask, to be shipped for my account direct from the curers 
in Bristol early in the season, when a vessel will be leaving 
that port for New York. If consigned to Messrs. Barclay, 
those gentlemen will give the little matter their unvarying 
care. Dental infirmity impels my caring for this necessary 
item in our domestic commissariat. 

I have been solicited by Colonel Trumbull and others to 
request your permission for Mr. Sharpies to execute copies 
in oils, size of the originals, of the two portraits of myself and 
that of Mrs. Washington, and to name that if Mr. Sharpies 
thinks of returning to this country, a good opportunity 
would thus be found to bring them out. I cannot en- 
courage any hope of commissions for expensive portraits in 
oils, such as these were. Our people cannot afford to pay 
the price. I shall ever value highly the friendship prompting 
the great outlay on your part. 

It is agreed on all hands that his two portraits of myself 
are, so far as likeness goes, by far the best of the many 
made ; hence the desire that the copies should be from the 
hand of the artist himself who painted the originals. In 
the instances of his frequent small pastel reproductions 
there is great inferiority. The copies I gave Judge Marshall 
are, perhaps, the best, but all are said to be very weak. 
My wife declines to join in asking your consent — I have 
undertaken simply to name it — to go beyond the mention 
would, it seems to me, be a clear impertinence. 

In judging Mrs. Washington's seeming disinclination, it 
should be remembered that my having sat to Stuart has 
resulted in the country abounding in so-called ' originals.' 

If it be your wish for the desired copies to be made, Mr. 





^ 


yw \ 








46 MRS. WASHINGTON OPPOSES DUPLICATION. 

Sharpies should be required to enter into an undertaking 
they shall be painted in best manner of his capability ; and 
in your interest he should be strictly confined to the 
execution of one copy only of each, and bound not to paint 
more ; so also he should undertake not to remove the 
pictures from your residence. 

Faithfully yours, 

George Washington. 
To Robert Cary, Esq., 

Merchant in London." 

A very general opinion has always existed that the First 
President did not personally favour the having copies of 
the Cary portraits made, and a good deal of remark, not 
always favourable to Lady Washington, has been vented, 
charging her with being opposed to the country getting 
permission for the execution of copies. All this is pretty 
much set at rest by the publication of the letter from the 
General, which, though treating of private family matters, 
conclusively shows that he would have nothing whatever 
to do in it beyond laying the request before Mr. Cary. 

Lady Washington is made to avow her refusal to 
join in the request ; she evidently desired that the 
English portraits should be real, and that no tricks 
should be played with them. The artist had been, in her 
estimate, liberally paid for his work, it had given satis- 
faction, and there should be an end of it. No blame can 
reasonably attach to her in the business. She doubtless 
had even stronger views on the matter than her husband. 
Stuart and others had been multiplying their presentments 
of her husband whenever the opportunity offered from a 
good-paying customer. Nothing may have been said as to 
actual " originality," but the inference conveyed with each 
such at time of sale was that the General sat for it, in other 



SHARPLES DINES WITH WASHINGTON. 



47 



words that they were painted from the life, whereas only 
one of Stuart's many productions was original in the true 
sense. Martha stepped in here to hedge round and 
protect the Sharpies portraits. She really wished that 
real worth should attach to them, and that they should 
be handed down to posterity unduplicated, and England 
for a while would be their safest home. 

It was during a first stay in Philadelphia that Sharpies' 
letter from the English Secretary of State, introducing him 
to Washington, was formally presented through the resident 
Minister, Mr. Hammond. There could not have been any 
need of this formality, as Mr. Cary's letter to Washington 
was more than sufficient to obtain the desired object. In 
common, however, with the routine style of the old merchant 
of those days, Mr. Cary did everything en regie, hence the 
formal document as advance-guard. No time was lost in 
Sharpies being honoured with access to the illustrious chief, 
the object of his mission. The General did not formally wait 
the painter's appearing at Mount Vernon ; he very consi- 
derately sought him out in Philadelphia, and expressed much 
gratification at his being domiciled in the house of " my 
friend, Mr. Franklin." He and Franklin were honoured by 
dining with "His Excellency" the following day, in the 
quarters he retained for occupation on occasion of his visits 
to Philadelphia, which were not unfrequent. At this family 
party, arrangements were made for his visits to Mount 
Vernon. As proof of Washington's liberality, and the nice 
delicacy prompting and attending his carrying out such acts, 
when Sharpies came to settle with Franklin for a month's 
board — and it included that of his wife and two children 
for a like period — he was in tones of whisper informed that 
"everything has been settled by the General." The inti- 
mation was accompanied with hints advising calm sub- 
mission, and with assurance that the liberal allowance of 



48 GENERAL HAMILTON BEFRIENDING SHARPLES. 

port wine had been included in the score, not omitting 
sundry bottles of archaic whisky. Sharpies' noble portrait 
of Priestley was a product of like happy circumstances 
attending the perpetuation of the godlike lineaments of 
Washington. But for Cary and Benjamin Franklin, the 
world might have been without either. 

Although, with exception of the Washingtons, no actual 
commissions were received by Sharpies for portraits in oils 
until some considerable time after his settling down in 
America, yet he had made a beginning in his new walk of 
crayons within a month or so of entering on his new home, and 
had been honoured with a communication from Washington, 
stating that he would sit to him in Philadelphia whenever 
convenient to him to come over. A path, therefore, had 
been opened, and as graciously as it was promptly, cleared. 
After reaching that city, one of the earliest friends drawn 
to him through Washington was Alexander Hamilton, who 
instantly recognized his superiority to the artists then 
practising in portraiture. He at once saw the price was 
higher than either the means or inclination of the community 
would admit, and he frankly and with best intent said as 
much to Sharpies. The newly-arrived artist would not 
reduce his charge, and Hamilton commended his spirit, 
adding, " They do not know a good portrait from vulgar, 
staring rubbish." May not the remark often in this our 
day be applied with truth ? It was solely through Hamilton 
that Sharpies entered on a beginning in his then new crayon 
style of portraits. The statesman saw in it a mode of 
solving the dilemma, and the start in the new role was made 
in Philadelphia. The first crayons were a Mr. and Mrs. 
Rush ; after executing these, and fixing the price for such 
at twenty dollars each, the orders came in thick and fast. 
Through his "good, tender-hearted friend," as he terms 
Hamilton in his memoranda, " I have received over twenty 



HIGH CHARACTER OF HAMILTON. 49 

orders," and " they are all so kind to me here in Philadelphia, 
New Brunswick, and Burlington, making me reside in their 
houses where I do the crayons, so that I am at no expense, 
and the money goes to fill up the hole made during my first 
two spendthrift months in New York." Although General 
Hamilton had found a bridge enabling Sharpies to get over 
his first difficulty, he nevertheless felt that the crayon 
sketches were not his real mission. He was anxious he 
should leave behind him some worthy memorials of his 
residence in America. The Washington portraits were going 
away to their proposed home in England. Hamilton him- 
self, Jefferson, the two Adamses, Madison and Mrs. Madison, 
Munroe, Clinton, and Robert Fulton and his wife, sat to 
him, though none had been finished. The lovely female 
portrait marked " Hamilton" among those sent to England 
at his death, and believed to have been his wife, shows 
how the painter's heart was thrown into this beautiful work. 
Hamilton appreciated it. There were at the time a number' 
of beauties in Philadelphia. Public men of the day, fol- 
lowing the taste of their great chief, seemed to have fixed 
their choice on the fairest of the land, and of these there 
appears to have been no lack. 

Alexander Hamilton will occupy one of the highest places 
in history. The elder Adams and Jefferson attained the 
presidency in his day. Every research of criticism, every 
ray shed on the annals of those times, only the more indicate 
to those living in an hour when we can see the past as its 
truth is, that beyond all the men of the first chapter in the 
country's history — Hamilton, as statesman, was the first, 
nor yet alone as statesman, when memory warms in the 
thought of what his oratory was, and the chronicles of 
bravery would be incomplete without his name. 

The administration even of Washington was moulded by 
him, and when the correspondence of the first President is 

H 



50 FURTHER HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS. 

carefully studied, it will be seen that Washington leaned on 
him more than on any other for counsel. What more vivid 
illustration of this than in the fact that Washington in 
sympathy, by the force of associations formed in the camp, 
by the memories of inestimable kindness shown to him 
in the saddest hour, was strongly predisposed when the 
question came before him of active friendship to France, or 
cold, calm neutrality towards her — a question argued by 
Jefferson for France, and Hamilton against her, yielded his 
mind to the truth so powerfully spoken by the latter, and 
risked even his popularity by the avowal of neutrality. 

All, or nearly all, the other great men of that era became 
President. Hamilton rose only, in office, to a position in 
the cabinet, and yet we can see that Hamilton is now, in 
whatever constitutes real, praiseworthy fame, second only to 
the man of whose administration he was the great counsellor. 
He, it may be, felt that the Presidency had been as fairly 
earned by him as by Adams or Jefferson, but he felt also — 
for he had before him in English history many illustrations 
of the truth — that the power of office is the illumination of 
evening, the night of intellect, the enduring sunlight. 

On the occasion of Emerson's last voyage to England, 
when visiting with his daughter in the family of Mr. Flower, 
at Stratford-on-Avon, he was very desirous of seeing the 
portrait of Washington's mother by Middleton. All efforts 
to trace it then proved unavailing, though had application 
been made at the American Legation, the place of all 
others seeming most likely to give the desired whereabouts, 
the mystery would have been solved. In order for a correct 
understanding of the past and present state of the holding 
of the various Sharpies Washington portraits, it is best to 
explain that some time after the death of Robert Cary, the 
three portraits passed out of his brother's hands ; so also the 
painting of Washington's mother changed hands, and they 



MIDDLETON'S PORTRAIT OF MARY WASHINGTON. 5 , 

were for a short period dispersed. Their value to America 
caused their after purchase by one family, and, with the ex- 
ception of the Mary, they have never since been separated. 
The portra.t of Washington's mother ran great risk in 
being for a short time under divided family holding. It 
is, however, now controlled by the same family as the other 
pictures, although for a period of years Mary Washington's 
portrait was separated from the others. All four of the 
pictures have remained in London for some years, though 
the entire four have never been assembled together under 
one roof. The blessed mother, subject of her son's deep 
anxiety for so many years, got spirited away to the neigh- 
bourhood of Northampton, where she rested peacefully for 
some ten years ; next for the honour of extending hospitality 
to her was the city of Bath, where for a short time she dwelt 
in obscurity, since which she has found a quiet, appreciating 
home in Sussex. A few years prior to Mr. Cary's death 
these paintings, second in historic value to no other portraits 
in the world, came near a rude scatter, and would probably 
have been irretrievably lost, the younger Cary, the in- 
heritor, being entirely ignorant of his elder brother's close 
assoc.at.on with Washington. Through sagacious timely 
advice the family decided not to part with the portraits ; each 
therefore took one, the portrait of Mary, by Middleton 
falling to Mrs. Edwardes, Robert Cary's sister. Good 
advisers, conscious of their ultimate value, have since been 
always ready with best counsel, though there have been 
days of darkness when the perils of separation seemed 
imminent. By family arrangement the two portraits of 
Washington and that of his wife may practically be said to 
be now in one possession, Mary Washington in another 
holding; though all four of the pictures are for the time 
being free to make the home voyage back to their own 
land should their possession be desired. 

H 2 



52 



THE PORTRAIT OF HAMILTON'S WIFE. 



The occasional unknown whereabouts of the portraits 
during the last seventy years is easily explained. Nobody 
having control over them heeded or could serve any object 
in bringing them into notoriety. For a time they may 
be said to have had no owners. After this period of doubt 
and neglect, the whole were with much foresight acquired 
by one and the same person. There were, however, clauses 
in a family settlement of the pictures preventing their sale, 
so also their being engraved, until an interested minor 
became of age. It was this specific, though as it proved, 
happy provision, that stood in the way of Washington 
Irving having them engraved for his " Life of Washington." 
Irving was deeply anxious for this permission. His first 
application was made in 1854, and was followed up by 
frequent communications during the succeeding ten years. 
He tried every means to get over the legal difficulty, but 
eventually admitted that the hoped permission to engrave 
the portraits could not be given. The three portraits were 
not freed from this settlement until 1882, when arrange- 
ments were made for their exhibition in New York, 
Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Paul, and 
Cincinnati. Autotype copies were executed and subscribed 
for in those cities, and the paintings then again returned 
to England. Middleton's portrait of Mary Washington has 
never left England since transmitted there, as is believed, 
prior to Washington's death, for repair and restoration, and 
as it appears in charge of Sharpies, most probably under 
specific instructions from Washington himself. 

The portrait of Hamilton's beautiful wife — a lovely 
picture — and the artist's gentle, unobtrusive manner had 
won her husband's heart, and doubtless his Chief's earnest 
request for his interest in Sharpies' behalf, served to 
stimulate Hamilton's earnest zeal, all combined, made him 
the more than friend he proved himself. Washington 



/ 



ARTIST LIFE IN NEW YORK. 53, 

headed the signatures to a list of commission guarantees. 
It was evidently his intention to have a portrait additional to 
that commissioned by Mr. Cary. Hamilton is credited with 
an earnest desire to possess one of the Chief he served so 
faithfully. It is suggested that a series of portraits were in- 
tended for some public institution in Philadelphia. Whether 
they were ever painted, and if so, what became of them, is a 
mystery. So far as is known, none of Sharpies' portraits 
in oil, beyond the Washingtons, the Adamses, Madison and 
his wife, Hamilton and his wife, Munroe, Jefferson, Clinton, 
Robert Fulton and his beautiful wife, Priestley, and the 
seven ball-room beauties finished by Maclise, exist. He 
evidently found painting in oils tedious, and so he began, 
but rarely finished anything. Crayon portraits brought in 
more money. It is more puzzling to divine what has become 
of the innumerable Lawrences, or Sir Joshuas, than of any 
work that may be presumed to have come from Sharpies' 
hand during his few years' resting in America. What has 
become of the portraits executed by Gainsborough, who 
painted in Washington's day, and whose easel was a fertile 
one ? So coveted, in large degree consequent on scarcity, 
their value realized is almost fabulous ; single portraits com- 
manding eight and ten thousand pounds. At the moment 
of well-timed effort, the helping hand so cordially extended 
by Hamilton to Sharpies, the new artist from England, 
came the crayon-venture success, and his hands had 
exercise to their fullest capacity. Portraits in oils, to be 
meritorious, were creations of toil, and open to endless criti- 
cism as to likeness ; the crayon products were expeditious 
of execution, and, in almost every instance, staring likenesses. 
Artist life in New York was not free from the struggles 
usually the lot of venturers on new ground. In the early 
stages of his first settling down in New Amsterdam he 
found expenses accumulate upon him, without any paying 



54 SHARPIES' KIND RECEPTION IN NEW YORK. 

work in sight at the moment. Robert Cary, with the 
thoughtful consideration marking every act of his friend- 
ship with Washington, had armed him with a letter of 
introduction from the English Foreign Secretary to Mr. 
Hammond, the Minister to America, and to the New York 
Consul ; and he had procured him a letter from an 
important personage at the Hague, introducing him to Mr. 
Van Ransalaer, the Patroon at Albany, also commendations 
to Chancellor Livingstone and Schuyler families. With 
the exception, however, of having made the acquaintance 
of the Consul and Mr. Barclay, Washington's agent, he for 
two months after landing made little progress beyond that 
of purchasing furniture and shaking down in his new house, 
which was near Greenwich Street, in the neighbourhood since 
designated the Battery. As before stated, Bishop Moore 
afterwards occupied the house. Even in those days rents 
were what he described to his friend and patron Cary as 
" pretty smart," as he seems to have paid for his house one 
thousand dollars per annum, besides taxes. This was any- 
thing but a small beginning, and as he afterwards admitted, 
a somewhat " imprudent plunge without sitters in view." 
He started, however, with a goodly balance of two thousand 
dollars in the bank — an amount soon reduced by purchase 
of furniture requisite for one sitting and three bedrooms. 
Friends were not slow in gathering round him — warm- 
hearted friends, too. " The artist from England " was 
socially well received, through the influence of the Consul 
and Mr. Barclay, and everything promised well, save actual 
commissions, of which there were none. He had brought 
with him a portrait of Burke, and also one of Erskine ; 
these were purposed evidences of his capability, but clearly 
in advance, so far as money outlay went, of the community 
in which he had settled. These two portraits drew around 
him what he called a " large audience." " Everybody asks 



VOYAGE UP THE HUDSON IN l8 o 9 . 



55 



us out to tea; and it was expected that the portraits of 
the great statesmen should accompany them on every such 
occasion. There seems to have been continual gatherings 
of these evening soirees, and among the New York " upper 
ten of that day, whose lines were as sharply marked as 
m after-times, everybody delighted to revel in the society 
of Mr. Sharpies' Edmund Burke and Erskine. 

The English artist, through his introductions and by the 
unflagging forethought of General Hamilton, became known 
to wide circles in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore 
His company was greatly sought ; of this we have direct 
ev.dence from Washington and Lady Washington. He was 
in the habit of paying long visits at Governeur Morris's 
residence at Morrisania, which he speaks of as "a large 
elegant house, superbly finished, and delightfully situated 
near the Sound and the junction of the Haarlem and East 
Rivers." He thus describes Governeur Morris's country 
residence: "On my visit to Morrisania, to paint Mr. and 
Mrs. Morris's portraits, my wife and daughter were both 
invited, and accompanied me. The great attention of this 
delightful family seemed beyond all bounds. Their agree- 
able conversation, the various amusements of viewing 
prospects, pictures, sculpture, tapestry, plate, china, glass" 
&c, contributed each day to interest us, and to make the 
time pass very swiftly. At dinner we had three courses 
every day, on a magnificent service of silver; dessert on the 
most exquisite French china. The library here is most 
extensive; and the beauties both of nature and art excite 
greatly my admiration." It is remarkable that he uses the 
words "paint the portraits." Such terms would hardly 
apply to pastels or crayon drawings. 

That Sharpies was a great favourite, and mixed in the best 
society, is beyond all question. Thus we find him writing 
of the Van Ransalaers :— 



5 C DESCRIPTION OF THE HUDSON VOYAGE. 

" We started from New York by steamer for Albany, 
to visit our old friends the Patroon family. Found many 
old acquaintances on board. There were 120 passengers; 
these fdled the deck. Mr. Chancellor Livingstone met us 
at Red Hook landing, and expressed himself in warmest 
terms, begging us to pay them a visit, and urging that we 
could not refuse and pass them by for the Van Ransalaers. 
When we reached Albany there were numerous kind friends 
offering us the hospitality of their homes. Mrs. Beezley and 
Mr. Dexter were each most pressing. The Morgans we 
also found resident in Albany. We were fellow-prisoners 
at Brest with the Morgans for many months, having 
accepted Mrs. Van Ransalaer's warm invitation, we could 
not entertain the Morgans' earnest entreaty. The yellow 
fever was raging at Albany, and we were glad to find the 
Van Ransalaer's place about a mile out of the town. 
Nothing could exceed the affability of Mrs. Van Ransalaer, 
and the kindness and hospitality of the Patroon, her 
husband, was beyond all bounds. Two days after we 
drank tea at Chief Justice Kent's. In every house, how- 
ever, the only topic of conversation was the yellow 
fever, and not liking to remain in a neighbourhood 
infected with such deadly sickness, we determined to 
shorten our visit, and return to New York. Mrs. Van 
Ransalaer was much affected on our intimating this deter- 
mination, adding, however, ' Much as I deplore it, — for I 
need the companionship of loved friends at a time when much 
fortitude is required, — I think you are quite right. You have 
no duties to detain you here ; but do come and see us, if 
God should see fit to lift the dreadful illness from our midst.' 
We returned to New York by sailing packet. The cabin very 
airy, and a great contrast to the crowded steamboat ; wind 
favourable, soon succeeded by a calm, so that we could only 
move with the tide ; when contrary, we lay at anchor." 




CHAPTER V. 

Sharpies becomes " the fashion " in New York — Trumbull and the Hon. Mr. Jay 
make unsuccessful efforts for reproduction of the portraits for America — 
Letter from Trumbull urging same and explaining their great value to the 
nation, also giving account of all the other existent portraits, contrasting 
them — Sharpies paints Priestley in Philadelphia — Hamilton, Lee, and Wash- 
ington meet in the painter's studio in Philadelphia — Affability and personal 
appearance of Washington — Sharpies visits Lee in Virginia — Admirable 
criticism of the portraits by G. B. West, of St. Paul's. 

Our English artist, who so immediately felt at home in 
America in 1 794, at once drew around him the tlite of New 
York and Philadelphia. Originally educated in a Jesuit 
college and intended for the Romish priesthood, and being, 
moreover, a man of much ability and generally accomplished, 
characterized by Jefferson as "a delightful converser," he 
became " the fashion " in the " best circles." Among his 
earliest made friends was Colonel Trumbull, who had served 
as aide-de-camp to Washington, and, having taste and 
ability in art, had sheathed the sword to ply the brush ; and 
had voyaged to England to study under Benjamin West, 
having been aided in such object by appointment to official 
duties in connection with Mr. Jay's embassy. Robert 
Cary actively engaged himself in behalf of Washington, in 
moving among public men with the object of averting war. 
Intimacy with Burke helped him. His labours, though 
prosecuted in privacy, were none the less earnest, causing 
daily personal communication with Mr. Jay. Sharpies was a 

I 



S3 LETTER FROM COLONEL TRUMBULL. 

visitor at his house. He there became acquainted with 
Trumbull, through mutual love of art, and, ultimately, they 
were friends. The newly arrived semi-military artist derived 
much valuable assistance by thus entering on his new 
pursuit, and it was owing, in some degree, to this intimacy 
that Sharpies undertook Cary's commission to voyage out 
and paint his friend Washington. It would appear that he 
first saw the portraits in London, and at once concluded how 
desirable it was that Sharpies should execute copies for 
America, and thus urgently pressed him in the following 
letter to Mrs. Sharpies, found among her papers at her 
decease. The artist's wife is selected as a medium of 
communication, being deemed more likely of successful 
intercession with Mr. Cary, Mrs. Washington being adverse 
to the suit. 

" It is much to be hoped you will induce Mr. Cary to 
change his determination, so as to allow your husband to 
duplicate his portraits in oils of the General and Mrs. 
Washington. The small pastels are but poor ideas of the 
original oils, and we are unable to see why Mr. Cary should 
have permitted their reproduction after this manner, and yet 
disallow the original oils, which all here remember with such 
satisfaction. It is a pity consent had not been given 
before the three portraits left for England. Mrs. Washing- 
ton, as you know, was really the cause of the difficulty ; why 
she raised it, is passing strange. Had she solicited Mr. 
Cary, he would have felt flattered. Her reply to all 
endeavours of inducement was that it would lessen the 
value of the portraits in Mr. Cary's estimate. All blame 
her. Many will never forgive her desire for English ex- 
clusive possession. Martha's blue blood often crops out. 

Mr. Sharpies is aware I was in Europe when his oils of 
the Washingtons were finished. I saw them first in 
company with the Hon. John Jay at Mr. Cary's, in London. 



MR. JAY'S EFFORTS TO OBTAIN DUPLICATES. 59 

It was a revelation to us both I shall never forget, they 
being his first canvas work seen by me. We both told 
Mr. Cary of their national import, but dared not then 
intimate to him the importance of duplicates being painted 
for America. The matter of Sharpies' charge need not be 
considered. Mr. Jay is ready with the cost, to which 
several are more than willing to join. Even if you had 
made a special return visit to America — and I trust you will 
return — there would have been no chance of getting the 
General to go through any sitting ordeal repetition, so we 
are quite satisfied to put up with duplicates, and trust Mr. 
Cary will loan him the pictures for the purpose. The 
General, after so numerous occasions of torment by artists, 
many of them utterly unworthy of the great subject, and 
incapable of appreciating the honour conferred, became a 
most unwilling sitter, and vowed to Gilbert Stuart he would 
never again go through the penance process. His portrait 
is much admired, but to my eye it is not the General, and 
I regret to say he is making numerous others, for none 
of which the General accorded a sitting. We must not, 
however, be hard on Stuart ; the inducement is such as few 
of us could withstand. The General felt in durance with 
Stuart, who told me he knew not what to say or do to get 
the desired expression, and if he had, the chances are that 
nervousness would have prevented him seizing it. Only 
fancy using a model to get Washington's majesty of form, 
and yet this was resorted to, although none approaching 
him could be found. The General admitted to Stuart that 
' although your husband had been accorded many long 
sittings, and that he yielded to sit for two portraits, although 
only one had been arranged for, yet the occasions had been 
rendered convenient,' and that ' Sharpies' rapidity of work 
and master hand had interested him throughout.' He 
added : ' Sharpies had the advantage of entertaining me 

I 2 



6o TRUMBULL ON WASHINGTON'S SITTINGS. 

with amusing newly-imported anecdotes of public men in 
England, and especially of the King, so that I never felt 
his sittings tedious or encroaching on my time ; indeed, I 
looked forward pleasurably to our daily meetings at Mount 
Vernon, and his interesting conversation kept up during the 
whole time of work. Sharpies was a clever man outside 
his art occupation, and had some novel ideas on the subject 
of artillery, which he always broached, yet with exceeding 
modesty ; at the same time his brain worked with his lips, 
and he was evidently a good mechanic. He talked well 
and worked well at the same time, no common endowments.' 
For myself, I had long despaired of his giving me another 
sitting. Had such been afforded, I should have devoted it 
to studies for future hoped-for work, rather than any formal 
portrait. This clear determination towards all artists makes 
us doubly anxious that the country should possess your 
husband's portraits of him. We cannot get the life originals, 
but we may, through Mr. Cary's assent, get the next best 
thing — copies by the hand that produced them from the 
life. The country has more than enough so-called ' portraits 
of Washington,' four-fifths of them destitute of the faintest 
resemblance. Many of those for which he so humanely sat 
come under this category ; the workers were so dazed in his 
presence, they knew not what they were about. How greatly 
under these circumstances all future painters will be thrown 
back on the Houdon bust for a true conveying of our sub- 
ject's grand head and sublime features ! There is a com- 
pleteness about the Houdon bust — an entirety, as it were — 
that nothing else carries, and it is certainly remarkable that 
deftness in clay modelling has in Washington's case achieved 
that which the brush has yet failed to produce. When 
Jefferson, in Paris, presented in 1785, Charles Willson Peale's 
portrait of Washington to Houdon, and which had been 
expressly painted for the purpose of conveying to him the 



THE PEALE, SAVAGE, AND STUART PORTRAITS. 61 

form and features of his subject, he at once declined it, and 
at great personal sacrifices came out to Mount Vernon to 
see the great original himself. Our gratitude to Franklin 
for having brought him out is great. In looking at the 
Houdon, how few of our people know the fact, that Houdon 
actually took a cast of the face, and worked out a model of 
the face from this. So also he eschewed all resort to other 
forms of men for retaining the majesty of the original. He 
took the closest measurements of every limb, and, being 
from the heart impressed with the world's future estimate 
of the man, has left it a work worthy of the subject and the 
artist. Had he followed our people's wish, we should have 
had something very secondary. It is no mere individual 
opinion that the Houdon bust is our best Washington, and 
I am expressing the feeling of all who have seen your hus- 
band's renderings of the great subject, that they are by far 
the ablest canvas attempts. They are both inspired by life- 
like and with individual grandeur and dignity beyond any 
other representations. They are far away from home, but 
the day will come for their rule in the world's heart, as true 
presentments of Washington ! , 

The Pine, Stuart, Savage, and Willson Peale portraits, 
and, as I trust, some of my own humble productions, will 
be subjects for reference to future generations of artists, for 
their designed work, illustrative of the military achievements 
and struggles of our people's great master-mind in the 
country's early infancy. But we need more, or future 
painters will be deficient in realistic work of reference. It 
is in hope of this supply we turn to Mr. Cary. Sharpies, 
in being welcomed and quartered at Mount Vernon, was, 
out of respect to his sponsor, placed in like position, and 
had extended to him all the advantages enjoyed by Houdon, 
Stuart, myself, and others, and we all admit his diligent 
availing of the great opportunity and privilege. I am 



62 WASHINGTON OBJECTS TO FURTHER SITTING. 

thus particular, in order that Mr. Cary may know why 
duplicates of the Washington portraits are desired by us. 
Personally I am much interested, as they would afford 
authentic material to fall back upon for public work I have 
in contemplation, and there exists little else I could avail of 
with satisfaction. I do not believe the General will ever 
again sit to any one ; it cannot be expected of him. Stuart 
will hardly produce anything more of real value, and I fear 
the General will not seek to influence Mr. Cary to give the 
needed permission. He has promised to name the matter, 
but we fear he will not go beyond a slight allusion, as any 
referring to portraits of himself he regards as savouring of 
vanity, and is most distasteful. Apart from any other 
feeling, the continued multiplying of copies by men in 
whom confidence has been reposed has disgusted him, and 
it is to be feared he looks on the whole fraternity of artists 
as birds of a feather. Lady Washington does not favour 
the duplicating Mr. Cary's portraits ; she will discourage 
rather than help it. Both she and the General desire 
the existence of authentic portraits that have not been 
eiultiplied, and she favours England as their suitable 
resting-place. Having herself defrayed the cost of her 
own portrait, she holds to have a voice in the matter. She 
knows how the President has, throughout his public life, been 
harassed and bored in sitting for portraits, the great majority 
of them worthless. One of the Peale family had proved a very 
vampire on his time, and it says much for his amiability and 
patience that he so enduringly submitted to tyros palmed 
upon him by injudicious friends. In so new a country it was 
not probable artists should have been so soon raised up equal 
to the great call ; we ought, therefore, to have brought out 
from England a Lawrence or a Gainsborough for this 
especial emergency. Mr. Cary, in sending Sharpies out, 
did a great national service, and it is hoped he may see 



OFFER TO SHARPLES TO PAINT DUPLICATES. 63 

public good in granting the favour sought. I have gone 
into the matter thus minutely, feeling no one else will take 
it up on right grounds, and also with the knowledge that 
Lady Washington will oppose copies of the portraits being 
made. I address myself to you, knowing Mr. Sharpies 
will not urge it with the force needed to induce Mr. Cary's 
consent ; and, being yourself an artist, you will sympathize 
in our wish to have the duplicates. 

Mr. and Mrs. Morgan and their two children, who were 
with you passengers from Bristol, and your fellow-prisoners 
at Brest, are living near the Patroon at Albany. Mr. Van 
Ransalaer, Chief Justice Kent, Chancellor Livingstone, 
Mr. Charles Wilkes and Mr. Jay have subscribed the same 
amount as Mr. Sharpies received for the three portraits. 
As an artist myself, I feel strongly on the matter, as they 
are by far the best portraits. So if you determine again 
to come out, tell Mr. Cary the sum Mr. Sharpies is to 
receive, — it may induce him to assent. The portraits must be 
painted in England before leaving, and without any trusting 
to recollection. 

General Gates died the very last winter he spent in New 
York. He had long been weak and emaciated, but never 
ill nor suffered pain. Always had expressed a wish his wife 
might survive him, and she was with him in his last scene. 
(America can never forget its indebtedness to Cary in 
serving Washington as he did in the Gates and Genet 
perfidy. Sharpies' wife was a friend of Mrs. Gates, but 
Sharpies never would tolerate her husband.) 

Stuart had not painted Washington prior to the time of 
Sharpies' first visit, or he would certainly have seen it, and 
it would have been referred to by the sitter himself in their 
many conversations. The only mention of Stuart, traceable 
in papers left by Mrs. Sharpies, is Colonel Trumbull's 
remarks on his portraits, and the annoyance felt both by 



64 MRS. GATES ON MRS. WASHINGTON'S OPINIONS. 

Washington and his wife that these should have been so 
indefinitely multiplied ; and a letter from General Gates' 
wife, which contains this remarkable statement : — 

" Mrs. Washington, it is well known, does not like Stuart's 
portrait of her husband ; he has made him too fierce, and 
then the nose is altogether what the artists deem ' out of 
drawing,' — the distension of the nostrils, if I may so express 
it, is most unnatural. Then there is what Mrs. Washington, 
I hear, calls ' a sponginess in the nose ' he has given him, and 
which nobody but the man who painted it ever saw. I do 
not think the General will ever sit to him again. And why 
should he endure more sittings ? Mrs. Washington does 
not want any more portraits of him, and will not have any 
other than your husband's in the house. The subject of 
sitting for another portrait will never be named to him." 

A wide margin must be given to this evident bit of woman's 
spite on the part of General Gates' better half. Her 
husband had proved himself a secret enemy of the great 
patriot, and had been, more or less, concerned in the plots 
to undermine the public estimate of his military capacity ; 
nor had he rested here. Letters from him to public men 
in England and France had been unearthed by Robert 
Cary, and his more than complicity clearly established. 
Washington's nobility of heart stayed all exposure of the 
traitorous hypocrisy, and even went the length of forgiving, 
if not altogether forgetting it. It was not so with Mr. 
Cary or Sharpies, who, knowing his Judas hypocrisy, ever 
afterwards despised him according to his deserts. Mrs. 
Gates would speak disparagingly of Stuart's portrait, but she 
would hardly be the depositary of Martha Washington's feel- 
ings in regard to it. The nose, as the mouth, were then, 
as now, in all probability objective features. 

It is no part of these memorials to underrate Stuart's 
portraits of Washington, or to question the judgment 



NATIONAL FEELING AS TO THE PORTRAITS. 65 



leading to their hitherto adoption as the national ideal. 
Time alone must determine whether they can hold their 
ground against the Sharpies. Most of the so-called 
originals by Stuart are mere recollections of the portraits 
painted from the few sittings given him by Washington. 
The Sharpies portraits, so far as the general public goes, 
were until recently unknown in America, excepting to the 
few leading poets and public men travelling abroad, who 
knew of their whereabouts and sought them out. The 
pictures themselves were packed off to England instantly 
after production, and all that remained to the country were 
some pastel drawings made in the first instance from 
sketches executed with the original oil paintings before his 
eyes, but which, through multiplication, and in absence of 
the originals to guide him, grew weaker and weaker, until 
like Stuart's portraits they became mere results of recollec- 
tion. The evidences of rapid change in the national feeling 
need no seeking. Boston, the city rightly priding itself in 
its possession of a genuine Stuart, has admitted, in free and 
honourable manner, that the Sharpies portraits are " more 
real," " more human," than the Stuarts. New York, from 
the first moment of seeing them, never faltered in its 
judgment. Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Paul, and Cincinnati, 
the only other places in which the original paintings were 
exhibited, gave similar verdicts. 

Stuart, as a portrait painter, is far more highly appreciated 
in England than in America. His portraits of Benjamin 
West, and several others by him in the National Portrait 
Gallery in London, are superb. The writer of these 
Memorials does not seek to place the two artists on a par. 
However greatly Sharpies excelled with the Washingtons, 
Stuart was unquestionably the greater artist. 

Trumbull was a frequent visitor at Sharpies' house in 
New York. On Sharpies going to Philadelphia to paint a 

K 



66 THE SHARPIES PORTRAIT OF PRIESTLEY. 

portrait of Priestley, the eminent philosopher and elec- 
trician, he was accompanied by Trumbull, and they 
boarded there together during the few weeks devoted to 
the execution of that portrait, a very excellent work. The 
Priestley portrait, according to memoranda left by Mrs. 
Sharpies, was painted at the advice and through the 
interest of Benjamin Franklin's son, who, strange to say, 
remained to his death a zealous loyalist, and to the last 
publicly avowed, as his earnest conviction, that " the 
United States would have developed more rapidly, had 
they continued under the British flag." The Priestley 
portrait was entirely a speculation, believing that it would 
lead to orders from families in Philadelphia and Balti- 
more. The portraits of Robert Fulton and his lovely wife, 
a daughter of Chancellor Livingstone, were commenced 
in Philadelphia, where they both came for the purpose 
of the sittings. Death, however, overtook the artist. Bird 
finished Fulton, and Maclise his wife. Both are now 
finer works than Sharpies would have completed. The 
several portraits named in this volume, and portraits of 
Mr. and Mrs. Brown — the former being partner and one of 
the early projectors of the eminent banking firm of Brown 
Brothers — are the only paintings known in the shape of oil 
portraits executed by him in America. He evidently pitched 
his money key too high, as there does not seem to have 
been any response to his Priestley effort, although certainly 
it is a portrait of great merit. Yet in a new community in 
which money hardly yet abounded, the art prices of the 
Old World would not unreasonably be prohibitive. Nothing 
in oils bearing Sharpies' name is now known as existent 
in either the neighbourhood of Philadelphia or Baltimore, 
though this must not be taken to determine that he did not 
paint any in those cities. Such works, sharing the fate of 
many portraits of ancestors, may long since have found their 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN A FRIEND OF SHARPIES. 67 

entry into brokers' shops, as preparation to the final bourne 
from whence none return. It is not clear whether the 
Brown portraits had been actually commissioned ; the good 
banker would probably desire them finished off-hand, instead 
of Sharpies' delaying habit. They were never finished 
by Sharpies, the uncompleted canvases being among 
Mrs. Sharpies' effects at the time of her death — good 
evidence of the Brown family never having seen them. 

It would appear, from papers left by Sharpies, that 
Benjamin Franklin had for several years, when in England, 
endeavoured to persuade him to visit America, and it was 
doubtless through this connection that their friendship 
occurred. Priestley had just then declined a chemical 
professorship in Philadelphia ; he had gathered together a 
well-furnished library and chemical laboratory, and did not 
wish to have his mind disturbed from his all-absorbing 
electric experiments carried on in the midst of a hoping but 
incredulous community. It was not then demonstrated 
that lightning could talk, except in the sonorous bass which 
had resounded from the earliest time through the arch of 
the sky. A poet had said of his brother poet, that he — 

" With the thunder talked as friend to friend ;" 

but it was one of those bold poetic licences in which 
the imagination outstrips, and sometimes foreshadows the 
reality. As yet it was a secret that men in the most remote 
corners of the globe should hold instantaneous converse 
by electric speech. God had broken His thunders over the 
world ; but the still small voice of the lightning was as 
yet inaudible and unknown. Franklin and Priestley were 
gradually evolving light out of darkness, but could hardly 
have seen how soon electricity should articulate our own 
language, or write with the instruments of our own alphabet. 
As when Cadmus toiled his slow and weary way, bearing 

K 2 



63 THE SCIENCE DISCOVERIES OF PRIESTLEY. 

the letters of that alphabet from Phoenicia to Greece, how 
far from him was the thought that, in after time, the 
lightning's fiery tongue would speak them, through still 
greater distances, in an instant of time ! 

Amid all the angry strife for the immortal honours of this 
invention, the name of Priestley will be for ever linked with 
those early electric discoveries leading up to the develop- 
ment of the mighty revolution so soon to follow. Little did 
Sharpies know, when painting the great chemist's portrait, 
that the element his absorbing study was so soon to revo- 
lutionize the world. 

It was in 1752 Franklin made his celebrated experimen 
with the electric kite, by means of which he demonstrated 
the identity of electricity and lightning. His letters on 
electricity contain a number of facts and hints, which con- 
tributed greatly to reduce this branch of knowledge to a 
science. His discovery of the positive and negative states 
of electricity, manifested by the friction of glass and sulphur, 
and his demonstration of the identity of electricity and 
lightning, were both events of magnitude, and were calcu- 
lated to call attention to a new field of labour and research, 
where so much fame was to be won. The honours paid to 
Franklin were sufficient to stimulate the ambition of all 
enlightened minds. The practical application of the light- 
ning-rod in shielding the habitations of men from the 
destructive thunderbolts of heaven, was a crowning triumph ; 
but in addition to this public benefit, if no further contri- 
butions had been made of the subtleties of the electric 
fluid, mankind would have remained ignorant of those 
grander marvels which have since been revealed. America 
was, at that time, in a state of colonial dependence upon 
Great Britain, and Philadelphia an obscure place, scarcely 
known abroad, and was first introduced to the notice of the 
world by this novel and philosophical kind of kite-sailing. 



DUNLAPS OPINION OF SHARPIES. 69 

To the glory and advantage of America, the first steps 
in her progressive career were not belligerent and revolu- 
tionary, but intellectual and scientific. The public mind 
was awakened to activity in the interests of knowledge, ere 
popular zeal was animated in the cause of liberty. In this 
particular, Franklin unquestionably took the lead. He was 
printer, editor, practical philosopher, maximizer, and tutelary 
genius of the domestic household, warming it within by his 
fireplaces, and protecting it without by his lightning-rods ; — 
in all these capacities he was eminently conspicuous before 
the commencement of the revolutionary struggle which 
settled his claim to that magnificent compliment bestowed 
upon him by Turgot : — 

" Eripuit ccelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis." 

Dunlap tells us that Sharpies the painter was of an emi- 
nently scientific cast of mind ; though fond of his art, he 
was equally devoted to chemistry ; and so it can readily be 
understood how he came to paint the charming head of him 
at whose shrine he worshipped so devotedly. The proba- 
bility is that he never offered his grand portrait of Priestley 
for sale, but preferred retaining it as a souvenir of the happy 
days spent in his company in the good city of Philadelphia. 
And now that Franklin, the friend of both, and through 
whom they had been brought together, had in ripe old age 
passed away from the world, the tie would be the stronger. 
Franklin had seen a good deal of Sharpies in London, and, 
now that a warm friendship had grown up between the 
philosopher's son and the painter, the family tie had become 
one of great strength. 

" There is a general feeling almost amounting to awe in 
regard to the great patriot in the minds of all who have per- 
sonal intercourse with him." So wrote Franklin to Sharpies. 

" Franklin is not alone in this feeling as to the Chief. I 



7 o AS TO ALLEGED RETLCENCE OF WASHINGTON. 



could share it," recorded Sharpies, " but for the unreserved 
manner in which he has always so graciously unbent on 
occasions of honouring me with his presence in sittings. He 
has always made me feel at home ; I generally concluded his 
desire was that I should enter into my work free from any 
of the embarrassments others have experienced in his 
presence. He asked many questions regarding you, and 
was pleased to learn anything I could tell him as to your 
home and manner of life. Chiefly, however, he liked to 
hear of the King ; spoke of him always with great respect, 
and especially of his exemplary domestic life. Edmund 
Burke and anything I could tell him as to his personal 
appearance, and the opinion of Englishmen regarding him, 
was gratifying if eulogistic of Burke, whom he seemed to 
look upon as the greatest of all men. Erskine, too, was a 
subject of his warmest admiration ; and oddly he would 
change the conversation to Lady Huntingdon, and here I 
was sadly at fault, for I knew very little of her or the 
peculiar views she held, although he was at home in her 
whole history and doings. 

It is the fashion to speak of Washington's so-called 
reticence, but any one who had been with him, and to 
whom he unbent, would know that it was the silent 
manner of a deeply thoughtful mind that never gave utter- 
ance merely with the mouth ; there was contemplative 
thought — every word had its purpose and a meaning. I 
never knew him repeat a question that he had before asked. 
He appeared to have, as it were, a present consciousness 
of all ever inquired into in previous conversations, and 
never referred to the same point in the public or personal 
character of public men in England, on which he had at 
any time before conversed. His comprehensive, orderly 
mind had retained all he desired, and it was engraven 
on his mind ; and he had great faculty of making this 



WASHINGTON'S APPEARANCE ON HORSEBACK. 71 



known, so that one did not venture on the smallest 
prosiness — a common fault with the many, but which he 
never could have tolerated. He never named to me, or 
in any way alluded to public men of France. He made 
you feel that he was talking to an Englishman, and that he 
dwelt on them alone, and it is presumable he would consult 
other sources if desirous of conversing as to our amiable 
neighbours. 

When on horseback in the streets of Philadelphia he 
rode a splendid animal of great power, and without any 
whip or stick in his hand ; and indeed he needs a horse of 
great strength, as his weight is greatly in excess even of 
tall men's average. I never saw a horse so proud of his 
rider as the animal on which I encountered him ; neither 
have I ever looked on a more graceful rider, or one who 
held such seeming unexercised power over the animal. 
Horse and man seemed as one : there was grandeur in both. 
He drew up to shake hands, and in my confusion my hat 
fell off, which caused him to bend forward as if with desire 
to pick it up. I was terribly put about, but the great Chief 
at once removed my embarrassment. Franklin tells me 
he does not like being in Philadelphia or any other city ; 
Mount Vernon is his one home of rest and happiness. 

General George Henry Lee, who has visited me several 
times here in Philadelphia during my progress with Priestley's 
and the Fulton portrait, is a fine fellow, his whole-hearted- 
ness beyond description. He and General Hamilton are 
great friends, and he wishes me to paint his portrait ; but it 
is no use my making too many beginnings, or it will all end 
in my finishing nothing. General Washington is with him 
in Philadelphia, and both came yesterday to meet General 
Hamilton, and stayed some time during my work. It was 
not easy to ply the wretched brush in the presence of three 
such men. There was no occasion for my saying anything, 



7 2 LEE AND HAMILTON'S CONVERSATIONS. 

Generals Lee and Hamilton did it all. The former is one of 
the most brilliant conversationalists I have ever met ; General 
Hamilton speaks well and always to the point, and evidences 
more what painters would call ' background ' knowledge. 
I have never ventured to start any historical subject in 
conversation in which he did not prove himself at home, 
and as to public affairs of the ' old country,' he knows more, 
and that soundly and thoroughly, than any man I have ever 
met at home in England. He is a great man, and must 
have been everything to Washington. I shall never while 
life lasts get over the having the three in my little room 
together. Washington insisted on my keeping on at my 
work ; I did so after a fashion, but it was only a mere pre- 
tence of work, an entire absence of mind from its actuality. 
Generals Hamilton and Washington were both very real and 
solid in all they said, General Lee full of vivacity ; but 
whenever General Washington spoke, I observed they both 
seemed in wrapt attention. The Chief was conversing, 
and not a word bordering on interruption was uttered ; both, 
as it were, hung on his words, as it appeared to me, with a 
something far higher than what we know as respect ; and I 
noticed that after I had opened the door for their departure ; 
and they had descended the steps into the street, they had 
both advanced some steps forward ere General Hamilton or 
General Lee covered their heads. Mr. Custis was to have 
met them at my rooms, but a messenger arrived begging 
them not to expect him, as he had been thrown by an 
untrained horse, happily without any injury being sustained. 
For several days after the Chief's visit to me in company 
with such men, kindly drawn by none but the purest motives 
of help, I seemed lost and unable to get anything done but 
a few crayon portraits ; but these yielded good money, often, 
when I am in humour to work, as much as six pounds in a 
day. I did nothing to Priestley for a week. Franklin was 



A 



WASHINGTON AND LEE IN SHARPIES' STUDIO. 73 

at home when the Chief and his generals called; he kept 
out of the way, and I was glad of it-not that I need to have 
presumed on any intrusion, for he held Washington in awe 
I his always seems strange to me, being no Republican ■ the 
son of one of its greatest propounded, he himself a zealous 
Royahst.-yet he says, < I look on Washington as something 
more than human. What a magnificent head and form it 
is ! 



When in my room with Generals Hamilton and Lee the 
Chief again brought back my attention to the condition of 
the portrait of his mother, so long hanging in his bedroom. 
His great desire was that I should undertake what he called 
putting ,t to rights.' I would do anything in my power 
even to give the smallest pleasure to this more than noble 
man, but I dreaded meddling with what he regarded with 
such reverence and sanctity. It cannot be called a picture • 
the jagged hole is some five inches in diameter, and the face 
though uninjured through the same cause as the hole has 
suffered through exposure to stove heat, and is peeling off. 
1 tell him ,t had better go to England, and that in the 
hands of Opie or Romney it would be made a good 
picture. It is just this, what he called ' transmogrification ' 
he seems to fear." 

The English artist little knew that strange feats have 
been accomplished both by dexterity in repair and through 
the power of transfer of paintings from one canvas to 
another, and even to the making several pictures from 
one, and yet each to be an original and genuine A 
remarkable instance of this kind occurred in the case of a 
work of no less an artist than the celebrated Charles 
Landseer, entitled, "The Eve of the Battle of Edgehill" 
now in possession of the Corporation of the Town of Liver- 
pool, which owns on behalf of the citizens a somewhat 



a 






i. 



74 DEALERS ACTION WITH PICTURE BY LANDSEER. 

extensive and valuable gallery of pictures, and annually 
apportions from the city rates such money as can be spared 
towards judicious purchase of pictures to be added to it. 
The work by Landseer referred to was painted in 1845, on 
a commission from Mr. Henry Graves, the well-known 
print publisher of London, and it was subsequently engraved 
by Frederick Bromley, and published by Mr. Graves in 1852. 
While the picture was being painted, Sir Edwin Landseer, 
who was very partial to his elder brother Charles, and 
endeavoured to advance his interests in every way, inserted, 
as he had done on several other occasions, two dogs — one 
a spaniel, near the despatch bags, and the other the large 
dog, near the table. After publishing the plate, Mr. Graves 
sold the picture intact to a picture-dealer, who, being a sharp 
man of business, caused both the dogs to be cut out of the 
canvas, with the object of making two separate pictures of 
them. Fresh canvas was cleverly inserted, and the dogs 
were copied by another hand unknown to either of the 
brothers Landseer. Reference to the Landseer catalogue, 
compiled by Algernon Graves, shows that the larger dog, 
which now bears the title of " The Sentinel," had the back- 
ground represented by a portion of an old castle wall, filled 
in by Henry Bright. This picture once belonged to Mr. 
Nunneley, and was disposed of at his sale at Christie's in 
1872. It afterwards passed into the possession of Mr. 
Eaton, M.P., the present owner. The other dog, the spaniel 
with the despatch bags, was also sold at Christie's in 1879. 
It was described in Christie's catalogue as "A Spaniel and 
Despatch Bags," originally forming part of the joint picture 
of "The Eve of the Battle of Edgehill," by Charles and 
Sir Edwin Landseer. The original mutilated picture, now 
in the Liverpool Corporation Gallery, was sold at Christie's 
in 1868 for £231. "The Battle of Edgehill" picture 
is a curiosity and an example of the picture-liner's skill 



SLLARTLES' VISIT TO GENERAL LEE. 75 

rather than of the work of the Brothers Landseer. In 
order to restore the picture's damaged reputation, the Arts 
Committee of the Liverpool Corporation endeavoured to 
purchase the two missing dogs by Sir E. Landseer, with 
the object of their being reinserted in their original places. 
In a later letter addressed to Mr. Cary, Sharpies wrote : — 
" I have carried out my visit to General Henry Lee, at 
Shalford, in this same State of Virginia. Until he told me, 
I was not aware of your receiving his tobaccos. This 
aristocratic house is comparatively a modern structure, the 
original mansion having been burnt down in the time of 
Thomas Lee, who was President of the Colonial Council 
and Governor of the State, and the first man of American 
birth placed in this post by the British Government. All 
Thomas Lee's sons have been eminent men, and dis- 
tinguished themselves, as you well know, in the events of 
the War of Independence. Richard Henry Lee, the great 
orator in the Senate ; Francis Lightfoot Lee, whose name 
is found in the Act of Independence; and beside these 
there is Arthur Lee, the Minister to France. The whole 
race seem worthily destined for greatness. The noble man 
who has so honoured me is just such as you would single 
out to render such service as he rendered in causing the 
surrender of Lord Cornwallis." (When the house was 
burnt down in the time of Queen Caroline, Her Majesty, 
it is said, wrote him an autograph letter, begging to be 
allowed to contribute towards its restoration, and she 
did so.) " The existing house was largely built of the 
bricks of the old mansion, and which, partly on account 
of their having originally been brought from England, 
caused them to be availed of for the purpose. I have 
never experienced such hospitality as in his noble home, 
and have never before enjoyed the society of so brilliant 
a man. Most of the fittings of the residence are from 

I. 2 



76 GEN. LEE'S ADMIRATION OF THE PORTRAITS. 

England, and the whole place and its surroundings proclaim 
culture and extreme refinement. The silver used at table 
is old and beautiful, and the china displayed in all the 
rooms most exquisite. There is, however, the usual draw- 
back ; the family portraits here, as generally elsewhere, are 
the productions of fifth-rate men, and detract sadly from 
any good pictures brought from Europe. Generally they 
are staring likenesses, which causes their toleration. A 
man with the judgment of General Lee knows perfectly 
well the artistic character of these ancestral remains, but 
he found them here, and has too much respect for those 
who lived before him, and whose heritor he is, to banish 
them to more fitting chambers ; nevertheless, they spoil 
everything. The general has urgently inquired whether 
good portraits can be made of some of them so as to 
preserve the likeness, but I discouraged him. He offered 
me such a commission if I thought it could be done well. 
I dissuaded him from it ; I could not undertake it. I have 
already entered on engagements I shall not live to fulfil, 
and, apart from this, it would not pay me to do it so long 
as I can find employment in the crayon sketches, many of 
which I have made for General Lee. He saw your Wash- 
ingtons, and kindly told me he never envied any man a 
possession as he did you those. I told him I had done my 
best, and was glad they were gone out of the country, as 
all chance of painting others from them disappeared with 
the pictures, and therefore all temptation was out of sight. 
I assured him they were painted in less than half the time 
I should have bestowed on any others, but that I had not 
been my own master in regard to them. The Chief, I knew, 
was impatient and weary in sitting, and I was driven to 
work hard on them ; the knowledge of what you, my kind, 
good friend, have done for me, forced on their execution. 
J would like to paint General Lee in oils ; but I am in a 



G. B. WEST ON WASHINGTON AND THE POR TRAITS. 77 

vein of making money in the crayons, and it is time I should 
save a little for my family, which oil portraits would not 
enable me to do. Fifty pounds is the utmost obtainable. I 
am as slow in oils as the opposite in the crayons, and none 
of the public men I have done in these decline my repro- 
ducing them for friends ; so I am constantly getting orders, 
and indeed have more than I can well get through. I have 
a number of oils rubbed in, waiting to be worked on when 
I get leisure." 

Public attention was called to the portraits through the 
following admirable article from the able pen of Mr. G. B. 
West, then editing the St. Paul's magazine, At Home : — 

" Nothing could be better fitted to inculcate the lessons 
of patriotism and unselfish devotion to the cause of our dear 
Fatherland, than the constant contemplation of these 
glorious faces of George Washington. Without them the 
study of American history lacks its best and greatest illus- 
tration. Without them it is impossible for the youth of the 
country to appreciate and understand the godlike character 
whose great heart, military genius, ability as a statesman, 
and self-abnegation, all rounded and sanctified in a life of 
beautiful and touching Christian faith and purity, accom- 
plished more in the creation and establishment of the grand 
fabric of this Republic, than all the other causes and con- 
ditions bearing upon its birth and career in the family of 
nations. There is an apparent harmony between the life 
and services of Washington and the character of the man 
as depicted in the Sharpies paintings, and this cannot be 
honestly said as to any other of the various pictures pur- 
porting to represent the features of the great patriot. 
That the Sharpies are correct representations of the living 
original, we have the opinion of Washington himself and 
of Lady Washington, in letters yet extant ; and if that 



7 8 LONGFELLOW'S ADMIRATION OF THE PORTRAITS. 

were not enough, the evidence of the aged Dr. Van Pelt, of 
New York, who saw the full-face portrait in that city in 
1854, on its former visit to this country. Dr. Van Pelt had 
known General Washington in life, and declared that it was 
a perfect picture as he remembered the General. 

It is well that the Father of his Country should be 
remembered by the millions whom his achievements have 
made the possessors of the priceless boon of civil liberty ; 
and it is well that the children of the nation should have 
his bright example continually held before them for imita- 
tion. The mind cannot conceive of a nobler object-lesson 
in the study of our country's history, in the study of the 
evolution of government by the people, than these very 
portraits hanging on the walls of every school-house in the 
land. It was Longfellow's ardent wish that they might be 
so possessed, and he earnestly longed, to the end of his 
great and useful life, that the original pictures might find a 
final home in the hero's own land. 

Washington Irving, Longfellow, and others of our 
departed great, have said that they never appreciated 
George Washington until they had seen and studied the 
Sharpies portraits. Nearly the same sentiment has been 
expressed by all Americans who have seen the famous 
paintings — that they had no tangible idea of what the Father 
of his Country might have been in life until happily a view 
of the Sharpies portraits was vouchsafed them. Now we 
see how George Washington could possess the more than 
Spartan courage and almost godlike self-abnegation he 
displayed in refusing the crown a victorious army offered him. 
The heroism of Oliver Cromwell in declining the shadow of a 
sceptre whose political substance he wielded starkly before- 
hand, is often held up to admiration by the worshippers of 
that grand and rugged, if not in all things praiseworthy 
character in the history of our mother country ; but Crom- 



CONTINUATION OF G. B. WEST'S REVIEW. 



79 



well s circumstances were of such nature that he knew he 
might enjoy the essence, the homage, and the power of 
royalty, while it might be destruction to him to usurp the 
title. In the case of Washington there was not any serious 
obstacle to his assumption of the purple if he had chosen 
to assume it. The great nations of the world of his day 
who respected and admired him, would have been better 
pleased to see the government of the nation just born in 
the hands of a wise and politic soldier-statesman, than' to 
accept the possibilities of future trouble through the example 
of a successful republic. The ruling elements in the 
colonial society of the day were aristocratic, and the tone 
of our high officialism, civil and military, was eminently so 
The crown of a constitutional monarchy was not an un- 
reasonable reward for the illustrious leader who had carved 
it out with his sharp sword and timely counsels, and there 
was not a doubt as to the universal heartiness with which 
the acceptance of that crown would be approved by the 
whole people, excited to almost adoration of the hero who 
nad just won for them their battle over the most powerful 
nation of the world. But the crown was rejected just as a 
third presidential term was rejected,/;-, bono publico, and out 
of the purest and noblest motives that ever actuated man 
The character we have known through the media of the Stuart 
portraits would scarcely have objected to sit upon a throne 
George Washington as he crosses the Delaware in a face 
borrowed from Stuart, would have accepted after only the 
show of reluctance he might regard as decorous, and con- 
sistent with his great solo act of attitudinizing for the 
centuries. George Washington as he sits on horseback 
in Union Square, New York, would have reached for the 
crown before it was offered. There is much which is fine 
and worthy of admiration about the Stuarts. We do not 
wish to appear lacking in respect for a type that has 



So G. B. WESTS CONTRASTS OF THE PORTRAITS. 

been accepted so long and trustfully as the real face of 
Washington by millions of our countrymen ; but it has 
always conveyed to us an impression of deportment rather 
than character ; of something made up for appearance on 
the great stage of history, rather than the counterfeit pre- 
sentment of the most remarkable man, in many respects, 
to be encountered among the records of the human race. 
There may be people who can satisfy themselves that in 
the Stuart pictures they recognize at once the warrior ; 
the sagacious leader at the council board ; the polished, 
dignified chief magistrate ; the conscientious vestryman, 
alive to the interests and busy in the little affairs of his 
parish ; the practical, shrewd country gentleman, wise in 
his generation as to fodder, critical of the tobacco market, 
and holding decided views respecting the sacredness of 
fenced land ; and finally the devoted son and husband, 
happier in his little home circle at Mount Vernon, than the 
most exalted monarch could ever dream of being on a dozen 
thrones. There are others, less fortunate, who cannot 
detect any of these elements of a many-sided character in 
portraits which, if true likenesses, ought to reasonably 
express some of them ; but they are to be seen and recog- 
nized in all their beauty and harmony in the sweet, high-bred, 
calm, tired face of the Sharpies pictures. In the full-face 
there is just a suggestion of a 'far-away' look, as if the 
donning of the uniform brought back scenes of carnage, 
disaster, and a continent of dark fears and cares — thoughts 
of Conway's cabal, of trusted Arnold's treason, of Lee's 
jealousy, and all the trials and crosses that the great heart 
had borne for his country's sake. It is a face built for 
command. Intense determination lingers latent around 
the mouth, and high emprise lurks in the eye. You gaze 
intently at it, and realize for the first time how with gentle 
grace its owner could stop in the streets of his capital and 




AMERICAN WOMEN OUTLINED BY SHARPLES. Si 



doff the laced hat in return for a poor woman's courtesy ; 
how with that kind mouth set hard and eyes streaming 
with tears of pity and sorrow, yet speaking an inexorable 
purpose through the mist, Washington could send to his 
dreadful death the gallant, noble, but hopelessly doomed 
Andre. In all the pictures with which the nation has been 
familiar, there is lacking all this vivid personality so speak- 
ingly present in the Sharpies. Who would for a moment 
imagine the Stuart Washington going out from camp into 
the woods, and dropping on his knees to pray for help in the 
impending battle ? You can see him do it in the Sharpies 
Washington, and you can see him get into his handsome 
coach and drive off to church behind the white horses, 
whose hoofs, we are told, were carefully blacked every day] 
and even stop on the way to tell a neighbour that he ' will 
see him on the morrow relative to that matter of the oats.' 
In short, there is not a thing about the life and character of 
George Washington mentioned in the books, incongruous 
with the noble Sharpies pictures, and there is not a single 
one that is to be reconciled at all to the Stuarts. In 
the Stuarts, we have Washington the uniform; in the 
Sharpies, Washington the man." 

Hawthorne is mainly correct as to the sketches of 
portraits of female beauties made by Sharpies with intent 
to finish at his leisure. The opportunity of finishing never 
came ; and at his death his wife bore them away to England. 
Altogether there were ten of these canvases. Seven were 
'eft in a more advanced stage than the remainder, and the 
fair subjects of these seven were Mesdames or Misses 
Peale, Van Ransalaer, Hamilton, Fulton, Field, Jay, and a 
daughter of Patrick Henry, the great Southern Orator. At 
this distance of time, with the very slight information there 
exists in guidance, the names of the others cannot be 
ascertained. All were recognized charmers of their several 



M 



82 HAWTHORNE 'S OPINION AS TO THE SKETCHES. 

localities. At the period of the sketches being made, balls 
took place in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, 
and Alexandria ; the leading families being generally known 
to each other, they all met as friends. Only very meagre 
memoranda existed among Mr. Cary's papers as to these 
sketches, beyond the fact of their purchase from the widow 
Sharpies, together with the other portraits, at the time of 
realizing her husband's effects after her return to England. 
He had been working on some of them during the winter 
of his death, having had offers of considerable sums for 
them by families in New York. It is clear, therefore, that he 
intended to finish them. How it came that they were not 
completed during the period of his first visit, there exists 
no record. Probably their origin and commission was a 
private arrangement among the gentry attending the balls 
graced by the special aspirants, for whose hands in the 
graceful waltz there would be no lack of gay cavaliers, — 
whether of North or South need not now be asked, — though 
future generations of men and women, gentle and simple, 
will be ever fond of looking at the Sharpies delineations of 
these lovely ones, and through them read what manner were 
they who held sway in the Court of Washington. If it be 
not heresy to suggest, may it not be through jealousies of 
rival charms, that Sharpies' completion of the beauties was 
never carried out ? This seems the reasonable explana- 
tion of their being in the artist's possession in an 
unfinished state at the time of his death, and their trans- 
mission to England as part of the deceased's belongings. 
He attended some of the balls, and was by no means 
indifferent to the charms of lovely women. Macready 
alludes to them in his letter to Cadwallader Colden ; he 
had seen them and bore witness to their charms. It was 
probably Macready's influence that caused Maclise to work 
up the portraits as he did. 




MISS FIELD. 



luctd by the Autotype Company, London. From the original Oil Painting by /aims Sharpies. 




CHAPTER VI. 

Washington's dreamy hours — Hamilton explains to Sharpies that Washington 
fancies himself connected with the Methuen family, of Corsham, England 
— The Chiefs profound knowledge of English history — Description of 
Corsham, its old mansion and church — De Witt Clinton's attachment to 
Sharpies — His greatness, and public sympathy at death — Leading public 
men, through Washington and Hamilton, unite in guaranteeing commis- 
sions to Sharpies — Biography of the guarantors — Washington, Hamilton, 
and Tobias Lear take supper with the artist. 

WASHINGTON, like most men, had his hours of dreamy 
romance, few as were the opportunities of indulging them. 
Without, as it would seem, any but imaginative basis, he 
connected himself with an old English family in Wiltshire, 
whose home is in a most sequestered spot, hoary of time and 
noted for its possession of a mine of wealth in shape of fine 
paintings of charming class. Finding that Sharpies was 
intimately acquainted with this seat of his mental romance, 
he indulged it to the full, and with a result adding to its 
fervour. The memoranda of the artist are quite extended 
on this favourite hobby-horse, and thus refer to it : — 

" General Hamilton had, before my going to Mount Vernon 
on my professional visit, confided to me that Washington 
was always happy if he could meet any one acquainted with 
those parts of England where he fancied some of his family 
had dwelt, and also that he believed his people had originally 
been connected, or sprung out of the family of Methuens, 

M 2 



8 4 WASHINGTON'S KNOWLEDGE OF ENGLISH H1ST0R Y 

of Corsham, Wiltshire ; that he expended a good deal of 
money in books, and in causing researches to be made, but 
could not in any sufficient manner satisfactorily trace any 
Washington dove-tailing. He had named to his Chief that 
I could tell him all about Corsham Court and the Methuens, 
and I ascribe much of the successful opportunities afforded 
me for my subject painting to the influence it afforded — so 
also to the ready compliance as to a first early sitting, and 
especially to his afterwards consenting to further sittings in 
order to produce the profile picture. I shall always feel 
that the old house of the Methuens at Corsham, and of which 
I could talk to him from personal knowledge, did more in 
securing me my great advantages than any other help. 
Lady Washington told me that the General was always in 
great good-humour after his sittings to me, and had told 
her he looked forward to them with real pleasure, as 1 
could take him to Corsham Court." 

" Washington's profound knowledge of English history 
astounded me. No more satisfying proof need be given 
of his extraordinary retentive memory power. He quoted 
freely, and I doubt not correctly, from old Saxon Chronicles. 
One morning on which he had called at the cottage in 
which I had been domiciled in order, as he so kindly and 
graciously said, ' To have the pleasure of your company 
and conversation in a before breakfast walk,' he had been 
led to speak of the Saxon blood in England's royal family. 
' It was in the summer time of 1067,' remarked the Chief, 
' soon after the Battle of Hastings, that Edgar the Ethling 
fled from England, with his mother Agatha, his sisters 
Margaret and Christina, Merleswayne and several good 
men, and went to Scotland under the protection of King 
Malcolm, who received them all. Then it was that King 
Malcolm desired to have Margaret to wife ; but the child 
Edgar and all his men refused for a long time, and she 



BELIEVED DESCENT FROM THE METHUEN FAMILY. 85 

herself also was unwilling. Eventually their scruples were 
overcome, and Malcolm obtained the lady as his bride, 
remarking that, " Full oft the unbelieving husband is 
sanctified and healed through the believing wife." ' 

Quoting, as he observed he had, the Chronicles from 
memory, he then continued to say that it was through the 
daughter of Margaret that the royal family of England traced 
their Saxon descent. " Here am I, with home so far away, 
at Mount Vernon, taking in draughts of my country's history 
from the great one who has written the chapter destined 
in future ages to afford its most perfect example of 
patriotism. My having lived near the village of Corsham, 
and for years known the glorious mansion called ' The 
Court,' in which had for centuries dwelt the family of 
Methuen was, he told me, an indescribable delight to him. 
It was from Washington's own lips I learned the history of 
this family of Methuens, with which he hugged the hope, if 
not full belief of descent. With the royal Saxon refugees 
in 1607, at the Court of Malcolm Caenmore (or the Great 
Head), came a person of distinction, of German nationality, 
who had faithfully served the royal family in their exile. 
On this gentleman King Malcolm bestowed the barony of 
Methuen, in Perthshire, in acknowledgment of his services, 
and from this place his descendants have obtained their 
surname." 

During Queen Bess's days John de Methuen fled from 
persecution, and came to the court of the English queen ; 
from him the Wiltshire Methuens are descended. Paul, the 
eldest son of John de Methuen, enjoyed the favour of Queen 
Elizabeth; he married in the family of Rogers of Cannington, 
Somerset ; his grandson, Paul Methuen, became a maker of 
broadcloth at Bradford, and by coaxing over Flemish work- 
men, improved the staple trade of that district ; his eldest 
son John represented the borough of Devizes in parliament, 



86 DESCRIPTION OF VI LI AGE OF CORSHAM. 

i6qo — 1702, he was also Chancellor of Ireland and Ambas- 
sador to the Court of Portugal, where he died 1706. 

Britton, the antiquarian writer, says he was buried in West- 
minster Abbey. But by far the most remarkable man of 
the family was Sir Paul Methuen, K.B., the son of John 
Methuen, born in 1672 ; he was at various times Ambas- 
sador to the Courts of Vienna, Morocco, Lisbon, Madrid, 
and Sardinia. Voltaire, in his "Age of Louis XIV.," calls 
him "one of the most generous, brave, and most sincere 
men his country ever employed in an embassy." Sir 
Richard Steele pays him the highest eulogium in the 
dedication of the seventh volume of the Spectator, as a 
statesman, a man of taste, and a patron of literature. Of 
his taste the grand collection of paintings at Corsham 
Court, which he made, answers for. Sir Paul was never 
married, declaring " that the blessing of wedlock was too 
great for him to enjoy." Many anecdotes are told re- 
specting his high chivalrous character and courage. He 
died April 11th, 1757, and was buried by his father in 
Westminster Abbey. 

Like many other of our venerable English village churches, 
that of Corsham seems to defy the usual wearing of time. 
It is much as it was when Sharpies described it to 
Washington at Mount Vernon. So also with its almost 
unrivalled collection of paintings. The time, let it be hoped, 
may some day come when in America shall exist such 
treasure mansions ; but let their builders and after-guardians 
beware that nothing but destruction can inevitably befall 
any painting or water-colour drawing in any private or 
public place where exists what is called the " furnace heat " 
of America. It must prove even more destructive of the 
thin paint film left on canvas through delicate artist's touch, 
than it is of the human countenance, which it ofttimes reduces 
to a sad pallor in a few short years of injurious action. If 



THE OLD CORSHAM MANSION. 87 

ever the Sharpies national portraits get to America, for 
their own sakes, if not for that of the world, let them be 
guarded from "furnace heat" — they are not of the tribe of 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — rather expose them to 
long below zero, than roast them. 

It is not out of character, or inappropriate to exalted 
living memory of Washington, to name that the Court at 
Corsham has in no degree lost any of its charms since the 
day when he hung on Sharpies' descriptions of it in that 
room at Mount Vernon, where the accomplished artist was 
striving his best to steal for all mankind the face and form 
of him whose unalloyed patriotism should chain the admira- 
tion of the whole world. It contains one of the grandest 
collections of paintings housed under the roof of any one 
private residence in Great Britain. The old mansion being 
inadequate to contain the splendid collection of paintings, 
part of which remained in the family London residence, and 
in order to bring the whole together at the Court, Paul 
Cobb Methuen greatly enlarged the mansion, from the designs 
of the architect, John Nash ; the park and pleasaunce he 
greatly improved under the direction of Humphrey Repton, 
so gifted in landscape gardening. Still, all was not as it 
should be, and in 1844 great alterations were made; the 
north front of the house was rebuilt under the architect 
Bellamy. 

The glory of Corsham Court is the magnificent collection 
of paintings it contains, a list of which almost forms a 
volume. The house is open to be viewed on prescribed 
days. The apartments in which these grand works are 
shown are the grand hall, the state drawing-room, state bed- 
chamber, the cabinet-room, picture-gallery, music-room, 
drawing-room, and dining-room : the old masters are here 
grandly represented by their works. No rubbish palmed 
upon the unlearned, but the real article everywhere. 



88 CORSHAM CHURCH, SOUTH PORCH. 



Dwelling on all that had transpired during his sittings to 
Sharpies, the artist had made very careful record of these, 
to him, "most eventful days of my existence." He wrote 
that on two mornings the Chief, on taking his seat, remarked, 
•' ' Well, my friend, tell me more of Corsham and the Court, 
if your memory serves you.' I never knew any one more 
thoroughly enjoy a descriptive relation, than he did of any- 
thing concerned with Corsham. I am convinced he believed 
himself of the Methuen race. From wandering during 
years of youth in its churchyard, I knew by heart all the 
quaint inscriptions on its gravestones, and some of these 
were singularly odd and impressive. I made a pencil sketch 
of the church to best of my memory. It had a nave, 
chancel, three aisles, besides a chapel on the north side, 
and a tower surmounted with a spire. On one side of its 
south porch are the letters E. M. H., 1631, and the same 
initials are on the east and west. My memory enabled me 
to quote the remarkable inscription over the porch, and 
which runs thus ; — 

' In this Chvrch Porch 
Lyeth ye body of William 

Tasker Gent, who choose 

Rather to be a Doore Kee 

per to the House of His 

God then to Dwell in 

the Tents of Wickednes 

He departed this life, 

Jan. the 20 An 1684 

Aged 69 yeares.' 

He listened with deep interest to the recital of these lines, 
and before leaving the room after the sitting, asked me to 
write them out, word for word, in the lines, spelling, and 
capitals as over the church porch. He begged me also to 



OLD GRAVESTONE IN CORSHAM CHURCHYARD. 



89 



endeavour to make for him at my leisure, so far as memory 
enabled, a rough sketch of all I could remember of the 
church and court-house, and on my presenting them at the 
following morning's sitting, he seemed as though he could 
not give expression to his thankfulness. I had not then 
been long at work when I told him I had called to mind a 
queer inscription on a gravestone in this same churchyard. 
I related to him that in England gravestones were not 
always reliable evidence as to length of days of the indi- 
vidual in whose honour erected. In the case of Sarah 
Jams, she of Corsham longevity is represented not 
only to have reached her hundred and seventh year, but to 
have been endowed with ' fresh teeth ' not long before her 
passing away. 

' In Memory of 

Sarah Jarvis 

who departed this Life the 

11 Day of December 1753 

in the Hundred and Seventh 

Year of her age. 

Some time before her Death 

She had Fresh Teeth.' 

He enjoyed this wondrously. I had again to resort to the 
copying out, and General Hamilton told me how greatly 
these narrations had increased his interest in Corsham and 
the Methuens." 

The old Methuen mansion at Corsham, with its art 
treasures, must have been doubly dear in the memory of 
Sharpies, and he, as he wrote, "warmed up " in relating all 
these matters to Washington. Romney, his old master, as 
well as his friend Opie, would ofttimes have been there to 
study its grand pictures. Wolcot, too, who had drawn Opie 
from obscurity in 1 780, would without doubt often be of the 

N 



9 o SIR THOMAS LA WRENCE AND CORSHAM. 

party ; for they were all three close friends of Sharpies, and, 
as artists, would gather round the Corsham treasures to 
drink at the fountain of inspiration. It was hither the father 
of Sir Thomas Lawrence brought his talented son, and in 
proof that he took advantage of his visits, Sir Joshua 
Reynolds immediately on seeing his early performances 
exclaimed, " You have been looking at the old masters, I 
see ; but my advice is this : study nature, study nature." 
Young Lawrence was born at Bristol, from whence his 
father removed to Devizes, where he became landlord of the 
Bear Hotel. It was for a long time a moot point what 
profession the talented boy should follow, for he excelled 
both in the capacity of a painter and elocutionist. It was a 
favourite pastime of his father's to introduce his son to the 
guests who stopped at his house, on the road from London 
to Bath, and make him recite ; in this way the lad first 
made the acquaintance of Garrick and Mrs. Siddons. 
Ultimately, the profession of a painter was decided on, and 
his splendid success shows the wisdom of this course. 

These and such-like were the themes discoursed of by 
Sharpies to Washington. 

Knowing Washington's deep interest in Corsham, although 
it could hardly extend beyond the realm of sentiment, yet 
one feels that this venerable English church and surround- 
ings he had never seen, possess, to say the least, a charm 
for all who venerate him. In the case of Sharpies it was 
passing strange Washington should have found one who 
knew the place almost as a home, and could impart to his 
imagination the touch of reality needed to rouse him almost 
to enthusiasm. If either were now in the flesh, and wander- 
ing thither to consult the old gravedigger now holding office, 
respecting this phenomenon, he will gladly tell the tale, 
" Az ow the ould lady ad long kep er bed, an zo wen opple 
time wur cum, she zed to er datur, ' I sh'd like sum opples 



THE WILTSHIRE VERNACULAR. 



9 1 



to yeat,' and er datur zed, ' Lor a-massey, mothur ! wat be 
taakin about, you can't yeat um, vor you got no teef ;' and 
the ould lady zed ' Rost-um,' and zo th' ded, an she yeat um 
aal up. An zo wen opple time wur cum agen, she zed 
to er datur, ' I sh'd like sum oppols,' and er datur zed, 
'Lor, mother, you can't yeat um, vor you got no teef;' 
and th' ould lady zed, ' Breng em yer,' an zo th' ded, an 
th' nex day th' wur aal gon, and er datur zed, ' Wur be 
th' oppols gon to, mothur ? ' an she zed, ' I yeat um 
aal ;' an she zed, ' You couden, mothur, you got no 
teef;' and th' ould lady zed, 'Put yer vinger in me 
mouf, and zee wur I hant ;' and zo sh' ded, and she ad 
vour, but sh' diden liv long ater.' " 

This is the Wiltshire vernacular, word for word, as the 
veteran would this very day translate and explain the tomb- 
stone. Reader, laugh not at the idiom of the gravedigger 
(the word " moonraker " is a relic of the grand language, 
the term is in England applied to men of Wiltshire 
birth, one of whom in bygone days is presumed to have 
believed the moon's reflection in a pond to be a cheese, and 
set to work endeavouring to rake it out.) We are proud of a 
remnant of that language spoken by our Wessex forefathers, 
that in which the glorious King Alfred spoke and wrote ; 
the language of kings centuries before the Norman adul- 
terated it with the coarse French he spoke. In the grave- 
yard, close under the church, are two or three stones of a 
peculiar obelisk shape, which are gravely asserted to mark 
the burial-place of a witch ; near at hand are two stone 
coffins, taken up from beneath the floor of the church during 
a late restoration— these are shaped for the reception of the 
head, and drained by a hole in the centre. Now, while on 
the subject of stone coffins, we must not pass over the stir 
caused among antiquaries by the discovery of one near this 
same Corsham in the year 1722, and respecting which the 



N 2 



9 2 RELIGIOUS HOUSES AT CORSHAM. 



Rev. Gilbert Lake, B.D., the Vicar of Chippenham, wrote to 
the celebrated antiquary, Thomas Hearne, as follows : — 
"Nov. 17, 1722. I cannot but let you know that a day 
labourer hereabouts, as he was cleaning a ditch, the sixth 
of this Month, lighted upon a Stone Coffin. All the bones 
of a humane body were in it, and, as I am informed, they 
were large ones : but what they were I cannot say : for 
when I went on Tuesday last to see it, I found few, and 
those the smallest bones belonging to a body, remaining. 
The country folk had, I conceived out of covetousness and 
ignorance, carried off the skull, with a complete set of fine 
teeth in it, and the largest bones belonging to it. The 
place where this Coffin is now to be seen is three Miles 
from hence (Chippenham), in the Parish of Cosham (a 
place I find twice taken notice of by Leland in his Collect): 
'Tis but one ground distant from the great Road to Bath. 
It lies East and West, as the bodies of Christians do 
now a days." 

Besides the church — which is dedicated to St. Bartholo- 
mew — Corsham possessed two religious houses, one a friary, 
afterwards used as a parsonage, the other a nunnery, 
which was converted into a public-house. At one time, 
near the church, stood a gaol and an old court-house; an 
ancient market cross once graced the town, all of which was 
indiscriminately swept away at about the period when 
Washington was trying to master, through the sketches and 
oral description of his artist friend, that which until then 
had been but an outline dream of the imagination. The 
market-house, which was then built, has lately been con- 
siderably altered and usefully improved. Corsham can 
boast of being the birthplace of a poet — Sir Richard Black- 
more — a physician of some eminence, but chiefly remem- 
bered by his literary work. The adjoining hamlet of 
Pickwick was the remote means of furnishing Charles 



DE WITT CLINTON'S ATTACHMENT TO SHARPIES. 93 

Dickens with a name for his immortal hero. One night the 
guard of the down mail from London to Bath picked up a 
baby, and bestowed on it, as a surname, that of the place 
where found. The boy throve, grew up, and flourished ; in 
time he, as proprietor, horsed the coaches running from 'the 
White Hart, Bath, to the White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly. 
Dickens, struck with the name he so frequently saw painted 
on the coaches, adopted it, which will, no doubt, live so 
long and wherever the literature of England is known. 

It has been named that Washington esteemed highly 
Sharpies' scientific attainments, and that during sittings for 
his portraits their conversation was not confined to the 
news and topics of English higher-circle life, but was 
frequently directed to the subject of the most recent 
artillery practice and invention. The artist had novel ideas, 
and fancied he could invent a gun that would eclipse all 
artillery then existing. To say the least, the General was 
struck with his notions, and saw "something" in them 
beyond speculative theory. 

De Witt Clinton had early become attached to "the 
English artist," and realized his knowledge and practical 
experience outside of art matters. He had made a com- 
mencement of Clinton's portrait in oils, but never completed 
it, the more profitable crayon work having taken him from 
the higher walk ; and it had been set aside with the Priestley, 
Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, and the fair beauties who a 
year previously had been " rubbed in " on canvases, hoped 
for as a stock that would yield fame and likewise dollars. 

Clinton is largely answerable for having lured the painter 
from the pursuit of his profession. At his and Governor 
Morris's instigation he was induced to accompany the 
commissioners appointed by the Legislature of the State of 
New York for exploring the country from Lake Ontario to 
the navigable water communicating with the Mohawk 



94 GREATNESS OF DE WITT CLINTON. 

River, in order to report on the expediency and prac- 
ticability of uniting these waters by a canal. According to 
a memorandum made at the time he did not altogether fall 
in with this idling of time, but his devotion to Clinton over- 
came his objections, and he abandoned for the time his 
money-making crayon portrait creation. He wrote, " I 
could not resist his urging ; he has been such a real friend, 
his truthfulness of heart is so marked, and the earnest way 
he has appealed to me have triumphed over my own and 
the objections of my wife, and I am off. Governor Morris 
is to be of the party, and also Mr. Van Ransalaer, whose 
charming wife says I must go.'" 

It says not a little for Sharpies' ability and discernment 
that he entirely realized De Witt Clinton's greatness, and 
that in him the State of New York had within her people a 
statesman to whom, above all party — beyond all party — the 
admiration, the confidence — the enthusiastic support of the 
State was given, and who if he now lived would, there is 
little doubt, as concentratedly be the man of New York, as 
these millions could bind their united devotion to the cause 
of any one among their vastness. When Clinton lived, the 
State was not the giant Commonwealth which it now is. 
Had it been, his eminent adaptation for greatness would 
have been even more generally recognized than it was. In 
person and in mind, the nobility that is of nature was 
demonstrated. Always a victor — victorious while all who 
clung to his fortunes failed — he was triumphant because 
the people saw that he was worthy to be, in all fields of 
action and duty, the representative of New York, and as 
such, repeatedly she presented his name as her own — whose 
name was identical with her own. 

Thus heralded, it was apparent that not New York alone 
was to be the scene of his talent. The name of Clinton 
was associated with the presidential nomination. It had 



PUBLIC SYMPATHY EVIDENCED AT HIS DEATH. 



95 



been prematurely presented once, but the error time had 
repaired. 

While his name was rising on the popular voice — while 
the glowing success of internal improvement had turned to 
it the gaze of all the States who desired to garden their 
wilderness — destiny wove for him the robe of death in place 
of that of power. What an evening was that, when the 
very heart of the city of his residence thrilled, as the tidings 
of his loss was uttered by one mourner to another, and 
grief was the language of the heart — not of official 
proclamation. 

As with the great Webster and Clay, the presidency never 
put its purple on him. Not even the rank of a Cabinet 
Minister, though offered him, was ever possessed by him. 
And now, who thinks that De Witt Clinton is less illustrious 
now, because he failed to be the occupant of the White 
House? James Monroe was President, almost without 
opposition, for eight years. Good and useful as he was, 
who remembers his name before that of Clinton, when 
recalling the men whose names are the wealth of American 
annals ? More and more is the appreciation of Clinton, 
because his mind was the ruler in his day, without the 
adventitious aids of office. 

Such of the artist's letters addressed to Robert Cary in 
London as have been found, and the leaves torn out of his 
memorandum-book and sent to his wife in Philadelphia 
during his stay at Mount Vernon, evidence the deeply in- 
teresting character of all memoranda of Sharpies that 
have come down through Mr. Cary's papers, and it 
must ever be a subject of regret that no thorough search 
had been made among his wife's letters at the time of her 
death ; such would probably have brought to light much 
that he had communicated to her of conversations with 
Washington during the moods of communicativeness 



96 WASHINGTON'S SITTINGS TO SHARPIES. 

generally ruling on occasions of the General sitting to his 
favoured artist friend. There is nothing to show the actual 
date of Sharpies' presence at Mount Vernon, whether he had 
stayed there once only or oftener ; but inasmuch as the 
Washington portraits were received in England before the 
close of 1797, and it is known from his letters that he was 
there in the autumn of 1795, the presumption is that he paid 
one visit only of any duration, and which extended into 
a fortnight. He had sittings before, and these were given 
in Philadelphia. All doubt on this point of the General 
sitting to him in Philadelphia is removed by the fact of 
Washington, Hamilton, and Lee meeting together at his 
rooms as recorded by himself. The probability is that 
Sharpies worked on the full-faced portrait in Philadelphia, 
and went to Mount Vernon more as a visitor than in any 
professional character. The General would be in uniform 
when in the city. The profile painting was clearly the 
outcome of Mount Vernon, and, as is stated, consequent on 
the artist being so deeply impressed with what he termed 
"his magnificent appearance in evening dress." In the 
first instance this was painted to gratify himself, but after- 
wards paid for by Washington, and presented by him to 
Mr. Cary. 

In addition to portraits of noted men arranged for at 
the suggestion of General Washington, and for which the 
artist would receive his full terms, a number of prominent 
men, zealous and devoted friends of Washington, subscribed 
their names for portraits in oil, to be painted at the artist's 
convenience ; so that he seems very early to have left the 
day of anxiety altogether a matter of the past. The original 
of this requisition exists in shape of a leaf from a business 
memorandum-book of Hamilton's, on which is inscribed the 
names of public men who would appear to have thus made 
themselves responsible each for his portrait. 



SIGNATURES TO COMMISSIONS FOR PORTRAITS. 97 







<zy 




Their autograph signatures to this document giving such 
material and hearty support to Sharpies is here produced in 
the order in which they appear. Washington heads the 
list, doubtless to induce the others to follow his kind 
example. Seeing that Sharpies charged $250 for an oil 
portrait, here were orders exceeding $2000. Whether he 
painted many of the worthies is not now known. He 
certainly painted Robert Morris, most probably for some 
public purpose. The fact of this portrait not being now 

O 



9 8 BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SIGNATORS. 



traceable, goes to show how such often drop out of existence, 
even within the period of rather less than a century. 
Sharpies' papers refer only to the known two oil paintings, 
the profile and full-face. The signature cannot refer to 
either of the two portraits known as the Sharpies portraits 
sent to Robert Cary, as one of these was paid for by 
Mr. Cary, and the other was in all probability paid for 
anterior to Hamilton asking him to head a document pur- 
posing such support to " the artist from England." It has 
been suggested that the signatures were given as guarantees 
for payment for the portrait of the belles of the day, out- 
lined in oils on canvases by Sharpies, and, according to 
tradition, designed to hang in a Philadelphia ball-room. 
This could hardly have been the true solution of this gua- 
rantee document. Sharpies was notoriously neglectful in 
the execution of commissions, proved by his having set 
off with De Witt Clinton and Van Ransalaer, on a long 
surveying expedition, at a moment when full of unexecuted 
commissions. 

In connection with these signatures obtained by Hamilton, 
guaranteeing, as is believed, a defined support to Sharpies, 
the following particulars are interesting : — 

Thomas Mifflin was born at Philadelphia in ] 744, of 
Quaker parentage ; educated in Philadelphia College, and 
afterwards entered a counting-house. He visited Europe 
in 1 765, and after his return entered into partnership with 
an elder brother. In 1772 and 1773 was elected a member 
of the Legislature ; in 1774, a delegate to the first Congress. 
Appointed a major of one of the first regiments raised in 
Philadelphia, he accompanied Washington to Cambridge 
as aide-de-camp. In August was made Quartermaster- 
General ; soon afterwards Adjutant-General ; Brigadier- 
General in 1776, and Major-General in 1777. He com- 
manded the covering party during the retreat from Long 



BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SIGNATORS. 99 

Island, and was active in arousing the militia of Penn- 
sylvania. He brought aid to Washington before the battles 
of Trenton and Princeton. After the battle of Germantown, 
he resigned his commission of Quartermaster-General on 
the ground of ill-health, and was immediately chosen a 
member of the new board of war. He was engaged in the 
Conway cabal against General Washington. He was elected 
a delegate to Congress in 1782, and was chosen President 
of Congress in 1 783. He was a member and Speaker of 
the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1785. In 1787 he was 
chosen a delegate to the Convention which formed the 
Constitution of the United States. He was President of 
the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania from 
October, 1788, to October, 1790; was President of. the 
Convention which formed the second Constitution of Penn- 
sylvania, in 1790; Governor of Pennsylvania from 1791 to 
1800 ; and was a member of the Legislature in 1800 ; in 
which year he died at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

Jacob Hiltzeimer served as one of the representatives of 
the city of Philadelphia in the General Assembly of the 
Commonwealth, from the year 1786 until 1797, and resided 
in Seventh Street, below Market Street. 

Robert Morris, a warm friend and patron of Sharpies, 
was born at Liverpool, England, January 20th, 1733. He 
came to Philadelphia with his father when thirteen years of 
age, and entered the counting-house of Charles Willing, 
with whom he was in partnership from 1754 to 1793. He 
was supercargo on several voyages, during one of which he 
was taken prisoner by the French. He opposed the Stamp 
Act ; and in signing the Non-Importation Agreement, in 
1 765, the house of Willing and Morris made a great sacrifice. 
From 1776 to 1778 he was a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, and voted against the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, but afterwards signed it. He frequently exerted his 

O 2 



ioo BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SIGNATORS. 

personal credit to the utmost in support of the army, and 
raised a million and a half dollars to enable Washington to 
proceed to Yorktown, where Comwallis was captured. He 
founded the Bank of North America, and from February, 
1 781, to November, 1784, he was its superintendent of 
finance. In 1786, he was a member of the Pennsylvania 
Legislature, and, in 17S7, a member of the Convention 
which formed the Constitution of the United States. He 
was United States Senator from 178910 1795. He declined 
the office of Secretary of the Treasury, and recommended 
Alexander Hamilton for that office. 

James Wilson was born near St. Andrew's, Scotland, 
about 1742. He studied at Glasgow, St. Andrew's, and 
Edinburgh. He came to Philadelphia, where he was first 
employed as tutor in the College and Academy ; commenced 
the study of the law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1768. 
He practised at Reading, Carlisle, and Annapolis, and then 
returned to Philadelphia, which was his home during the 
remainder of his life. He wrote upon the controversy 
between the mother country and the Colonies. He was a 
member of the Conventions held in 1774 and 1775. In 
May, 1775, he took his seat in Congress, and voted in 
favour of the Declaration of Independence. He was a 
member of the Convention which formed the Constitution 
of the United States, and also of the Convention of Penn- 
sylvania which met to consider the propriety of adopting 
that Constitution. His lectures on Law, delivered in the 
University of Pennsylvania, were published in 1804. He 
died at Edenton, North Carolina, on the 28th of August, 
1798. He was father of Burd Wilson, a lawyer and judge 
in Pennsylvania, afterwards a clergyman of the Episcopal 
Church, and the biographer of Bishop White. 

Charles Biddle was an active patriot during the American 
Revolution. Under the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, 



BIOGRAPHIES OF THE S1GNAT0RS. 101 

he was Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council 
of the State, when Benjamin Franklin was President. One 
of his brothers was Commodore Nicholas Biddle, who was 
blown up in the Randolph, in a desperate and unequal 
conflict with a British ship of the line. In 1778, Charles 
Biddle married Miss Hannah Shepard, of North Carolina. 
Nicholas Biddle, for many years the President of the Bank 
of the United States, was one of their children. 

John Vaughan, a native of England, and who resided in 
Philadelphia for half a century, was one of the truest philan- 
thropists of the " City of Love." He was for many years 
the Librarian of the American Philosophical Society. The 
delight which most men take in making and hoarding 
dollars, he took in rendering services, in discharging bene- 
volent offices, and serving his fellow-man for good. He 
would go from one end of the city to the other to obtain 
employment for an honest man. Would there were in our 
day more such blessed characters ! He died on the 30th 
of December, 1841, at the close of his eighty-eighth year. 
Vaughan was a prominent member of the Unitarian Church 
in Locust Street, Philadelphia, and met his death through 
being knocked down by a runaway horse. 

Tobias Lear was born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
on the 19th September, 1762, and graduated at Harvard 
University in 1783. In 1785 he was General Washington's 
Private Secretary, and served him faithfully until his death, 
and was most liberally remembered by him in his will. 
Lear was frequently the medium of communication between 
Washington and Robert Cary. In 1801 he was made 
Consul-General at St. Domingo ; and from 1804 to 1812 was 
Consul-General at Algiers, and Commissioner to conclude 
a peace with Tripoli. The latter duty he performed in 
1805, much to the dissatisfaction of General Eaton, who 
was gaining important advantages over the Tripolitans. 



FAITHFUL SERVICES OF TOBIAS LEAR. 



Lear's conduct was approved by his Government, though 
much blamed by a portion of the public. He died at 
Washington City on the ioth of October, 1 8 16, being at 
that time an accountant in the War Department. 

It too frequently happens, and especially in America, that 
the noisy ones of the world alone are rendered prominent in 
its estimation. Tobias Lear was a man little heard of' 
during his life, and afterwards known to but few, only as 
having been Washington's private secretary. He deserved 
more than this, for a more faithful, earnest man never 
served sovereign or people. Ever at his Chief's side in times 
of trouble as in hours of calm, and these latter were far less 
frequent than imagination would suggest, Tobias Lear's 
labours were rendered at times herculean. But for such a 
helper and friend, Washington must inevitably have suc- 
cumbed to the weight of the terrible burden thrown upon 
his shoulders. The ordinary citizen of America has no 
pity for the public man, and no rest is permitted him. He 
must submit to unlimited importuning, and under endless 
forms. Lear was ever at hand, with a cheerfulness knowing 
no bound, to carry through the ceaseless labour devolving 
on him. He was in every sense a good, true, and faithful 
man. No matter how heavy the call on his time and 
attention, he never complained, nor did his habitual cheer- 
fulness ever forsake him. He was not the mere secretary, 
his Chief highly valued his counsel, and his country owes 
him far more than it knows of. His judgment was of the 
highest order, and he had the happiness of securing his 
only coveted reward, the esteem of him he served. 
Washington appreciated and loved him. 

During his residence in Philadelphia Sharpies entertained 
Washington, Hamilton, and Tobias Lear at supper. Cary 
had an account of it from Sharpies' pen. Despite all 
search it cannot be found. 



•' 




MARY. THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON. 



Reproduced by the Autotype Company, London. From tht original Oil Painting by Middleion. 







CHAPTER VII. 

Mary Washington — Existence of an authenticated Portrait by Middleton— Its 
mutilated condition — Letter of Washington stating its injuries, how occur- 
ring, and desiring repair — The portrait sent to England for restoration — 
Royal Academician Bird undertakes it — The widow Sharpies medium of 
communicating with the Custis family as to restoration of the painting — 
Bird completes it — Cary eventually pays the cost— General Grant views the 
portrait — His letter to the owner, expressing great thankfulness for the 
privilege extended him. 

Mary Washington ! The very name is redolent of 
sweetness and goodness. Martha is grand, but somehow 
Mary is, if possible, more feminine and softer. How wide 
are the sympathies evoked where the trail of greatness is in 
the pathway ! The mother of such a man as Washington 
must ever be an object of eager interest. The dark shadow 
of the grave, though enfolding her remains in its unbroken 
silence, has happily been prevented hiding from succeeding 
generations the features of her to whom the world owes 
so much. 

It has been generally believed that no portrait of Wash- 
ington's mother existed. The error is removed^ Washing 
ton possessed a portrait of his mother, painted by an English 
officer named Middleton. 

The painting was terribly mutilated during a journey to 
headquarters in Philadelphia, being reduced to such a con- 
dition as to prevent its being hung in any but a bedchamber. 
Sharpies, when at Mount Vernon painting the great Chief 
and his wife, was consulted as to what could be done with 
it. A huge hole had been ground out of its centre, through 



io 4 MUTILATED STATE OF THE PICTURE. 



abrasion of the posts of a bedstead carelessly placed in the 
waggon with the portrait, and its condition during many 
years was most woebegone. Several partially disjointed 
pieces of the canvas had been roughly glued on an improvised 
back, and although by this rude contrivance its more serious 
injuries were concealed, yet it was not presentable for mural 
decoration. Like a truly affectionate son, Washington ever 
retained it, worried and tattered as it was, in his bedroom, 
where it remained until sent to England — whether to Mr. 
Cary in Sharpies' charge, when he returned after his first 
visit to America, is not known ; but certain it is that Sharpies 
and Cary were both concerned, not only in the means taken 
for its repair, but they went a step further, and after the paint 
had been transferred to a new canvas, its restoration, or, as 
termed in their memoranda, its "doing up," was confided 
to one of the ablest artists in portraiture then living, named 
Bird, who was a Royal Academician and portrait painter 
to the Princess Charlotte. Whether Sharpies was alive 
and personally consulted Bird is not known. Sharpies 
himself knew Bird, who appears to have been a personal 
friend of Robert Cary, Washington's agent, the man to whom 
America is indebted for the portraits of Washington and his 
wife. 

" Oh, that those lips had language ! Life has passed 
With me but roughly since I heard thee last. 
Those lips are thine — thy own sweet smile I see, 
The same that oft in childhood solaced me ; 
Voice only fails, eke how distinct they say, 
' Grieve not, my child, chase all thy fears away ! ' 
The meek intelligence of those dear eyes 
(Blest be the art that can immortalize, — 
The art that baffles Time's tyrannic claim 
To quench it) here shines on me still the same." 

COWPER. 



LETTER FROM WASHINGTON AS TO ITS REPAIR. 105 

All doubt as to the portrait of Mary, Washington's 
mother, is prevented by a letter from Mount Vernon, bearing 
date 1792, several years before Sharpies painted there, and 
which is addressed to Mr. Charles Carter, who married a 
niece of Washington. It is a communication in reply to 
one evidently on private matters. He had offered his 
services in getting the painting repaired, and which Wash- 
ington declined. Washington's yearning to his mother's 
portrait evidences endearment and devoted affection. Mr. 
Carter would appear to have asked for an appointment 
in the War Office, failing^tWs71m~aTmv commission for his 
son, and that he should/be admitted as\^ resident member 
in the General's famiUJ. The General explains his utter 
inability to accede, and in his usual straightforward language 
explains his mode of dealing with such applications. As 
applicable to his mother's portrait, it is reproduced. 

"Mount Vernon, May 19, 1792. 

My dear Sir,— Your letter of the 30th ult. was on its 
way to Philadelphia whilst I was on my journey to this place, 
owing to which I did not receive it until it reverberated ; 
this must be my apology for not giving the receipt of it an 
earlier acknowledgment. 

It is very good of you to offer to get the presumed 
needful done to my mother's portrait, painted by an 
Englishman named Middleton, who formerly held a com- 
mission in the British service, and who had been a 
professional artist in England. Robert Cary has fre- 
quently urged its being sent to London, that he might 
confide the repair of the hole and the completion of the 
picture itself— which, but for the face, is by most persons 
deemed imperfect — to one of the most eminent English 
painters; but I have been so long accustomed to look on 
the mutilation, as almost to disregard it. The portrait is 

P 






106 WASHINGTON'S MOTHER'S PORTRAIT. 

identified with my whole life. My mother gave it me, and 
the large hole was thrust through it in course of waggon 
travel to Philadelphian quarters. Under the disfigurement, 
Mrs. Washington and myself ever afterwards preferred it 
hanging in my bedroom, where its wounded, unfinished, 
and apparently neglected condition escaped frequent un- 
pleasant remark. Any change wrought in the picture 
beyond repairing the hole would be the reverse of im- 
provement to my eye. I am happy above measure in 
having it, wounded and apparently neglected as it is, 
rather than incur the penalty of its absence. 

It would give me pleasure to receive your son into my 
family if it could be made tolerably convenient to me, or if 
any advantage was likely to result from it to the young 
gentleman himself. I was in no real want even of Howell 
Lewis, but understanding that he was spending his time 
rather idly, and at the same time very slenderly provided 
for by his father, I thought for the few months which 
remained to be accomplished of my own servitude, by taking 
him under my care I might impress him with ideas and give 
him a turn to some pursuit or other that might be service- 
able to him hereafter, but what that will be I am at present 
as much at a loss to decide as you would be ; for as the 
heads of the different departments have by law the appoint- 
ment of their own clerks — are responsible for the conduct 
of them, are surrounded always with applicants, and, I 
presume, have their own inclinations and friends to gratify — 
I never have in a single instance, and I am pretty sure 
I shall not now begin, recommended any one to either of 
them. 

My family, now Howell is admitted into it, will be more 
than full, and in truth more than is convenient for the 
house — as Mr. Dandridge, a nephew of Mrs. Washington, 
is already one of it, and but one room for him, Howell, and 



RESTORATION OF THE PORTRAIT IN ENGLAND. 107 

another person to sleep in ; all the others being appropriated 
to public or private uses (the words " purposes, although it 
is one of the largest houses in the city " followed here, but 
had been marked through by the General's pen). 

If your son Charles is of age, and it should be your and 
his own inclination to pursue a military course, I would, if 
any vacancy should happen (at present there is none) in 
one of the regiments, endeavour to place him therein. You 
will perceive I have made age the condition — the reason is, 
it is established as a rule in the War Office to appoint none 
knowingly that are under it. 

With love to Mrs. Carter. 

Faithfully yours, 

George Washington. 

Charles Carter." 

Nothing has been traced among Mr. Cary's letters or 
memoranda showing when or through whom the portrait of 
Mary Washington was sent to England for the necessary 
repair. Mrs. Sharpies clearly had it in possession after her 
husband's death, and would appear to have held it for 
several years later. There would seem to have been a 
great deal done to it, according to a communication made 
by her to Mrs. Morgan, of Albany, to whom the widow had 
written, stating that she had twice addressed Mr. Custis, 
son of Lady Washington, on the matter, but had not receivec' 
any reply. However wrecked its condition before voyaging 
to England, it is now the portrait of a very beautiful 
woman, and reflects the highest credit on Bird's restoration. 
True were Washington's words to Sharpies as to his 
mother being the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. 
It would be sad to know that after Washington and his 
wife's death there should have been wanting, in those 
of his family left behind, heed for the portrait of hi? 

P 2 



ioS THE PORTRAIT SENT TO ENGLAND. 

mother to which he had clung with such fond affection. It 
certainly does seem that with its disappearance from Mount 
Vernon, the poor maimed heirloom had ceased having any 
reverent guardian. This points to the conclusion that it 
had left there some time before his death. If Lady Wash- 
ington had despatched it to England, more readiness would 
have been exhibited in having the repairs made, and there 
would have been greater probability of some instructions 
existing, but not a scrap has come to light. The most 
likely truth is that Sharpies had it in charge to England on 
his first return there, and the reason of it remaining behind 
when he returned to America was that Bird had not finished 
it when Sharpies embarked. Some think it arrived in Eng- 
land during the interval between Sharpies' visits to America, 
and to have been sent to him in England direct from Mount 
Vernon, but there is nothing in proof of this. Probably 
communications had been addressed to Mr. Custis, and 
such definite instructions as must naturally, under the cir- 
cumstances, have been desired, could not be obtained from 
him. The family would instruct minutely in accordance 
with his latest wishes, knowing as they did the love and 
veneration with which he regarded the portrait. Washington, 
Sharpies said, had a manner of impressing his words such 
as he had never known in any other living man. He would, 
therefore, dwell on the remembrance of his conversations 
at Mount Vernon relative to the portrait, and Washington 
expressed wishes as to the repairs, or possibly any sug- 
gestions as to alterations he in conversation may have deemed 
prudent to urge as improving to it, although it is hardly 
probable he would himself venture on any great change, 
or intend much being done to it beyond mere repair 
of the hole. When at Mount Vernon, Sharpies had 
explained that any patch made in the canvas would always 
be a desight, and had told him there were persons in London 



PORTRAIT TRANSFERRED TO A NEW CANVAS. 109 



who could remove all the paint from the old canvas and 
transfer it on to a new canvas, which process was recom- 
mended for adoption. This would leave it open to any 
eminent painter to improve greatly its general character, 
although Middleton was no mean artist. The General 
could not be brought to believe in the safety of any such 
treatment, and naturally inquired why he, an artist, would 
not undertake it. It was needless endeavouring to explain 
that such work was mechanical, and did not fall within an 
artist's skill. But then it will be remembered that Sharpies 
was a thorough mechanic. Eminent portrait painters, how- 
ever, say that he would hardly be equal to such a task, or 
at any rate, it was one he would not have been justified in 
entering upon. The probability is that Sharpies overcame 
Washington's scruples in regard to the poor tattered 
picture, and that he afterwards conveyed it to England for 
the needed repair. 

All that is known is that the tattered picture was trans- 
ferred to a new canvas, and that when this had been 
accomplished, it was placed in the hands of Bird, a Royal 
Academician, for him, as is presumed, to deal with as he 
deemed best. Bird was an eminent man, and we may be 
assured dealt with it in every way that was best calculated 
to render it what friends would desire it to be. He had, 
according to Mrs. Sharpies' letters to Mrs. Morgan, " in- 
structions from my husband to do all that could be done in 
improving the picture, every care being taken to preserve 
the likeness." This remark indicates Sharpies' presence 
in London with the picture, and that he was a party to 
instruct the work, evidently something beyond repair: it 
was to be "improved." Sharpies or Mr. Cary must have 
received some such orders as these when the portrait came 
from America. This order to Bird is certainly a very free 
commission, one that it would have been the height of 



1 1 o COST OF MARY'S PORTRAIT RESTORA TION. 

imprudence to give in a general way ; but Bird would hardly 
care for such a job, and we may be assured would not meddle 
with it in any way but for its improvement, and especially 
would he respect the painter's treatment of the face and 
features. Matters of detail he would very likely change so 
as to bring the subject more into harmony with his own 
views of what it should be, and it may safely be assumed 
that Middleton's portrait of Mary Washington came off 
Bird's easel in every way greatly improved. It is now un- 
mistakably the work of a good painter, although a skilled 
examiner may say that more than one person had a hand 
in it. It is not an Opie or a Romney, but is, nevertheless, 
a thoroughly able work, and the whole world has cause of 
rejoicing that it fell into Bird's hands, and that a man of 
the sound judgment and discretion of Robert Cary had the 
selection of the artist to whom such a treasure should be 
entrusted. 

The picture was allowed to remain in Mrs. Sharpies' 
hands for some time after her husband's death, and it can 
only be assumed that she, in the first instance, paid Bird 
his charge, as Mrs. Morgan had corresponded thereon with 
Mr. Custis, but there was nothing to be found as to the 
sum paid ; although from the fact of her transacting the 
business with a friend it would look as though she found 
difficulties in arranging it direct with Mr. Custis. Mrs. 
Sharpies was not in straitened circumstances, she and 
her daughter had an income sufficient for their needs, and 
she clearly did not apply to Mr. Cary for the money paid 
Bird, and which would be about the same amount as he 
would have charged for painting a portrait, certainly not 
much short of a hundred pounds. In the first instance 
she paid it herself, though from the painting being after- 
wards found in Mr. Cary's possession, it would appear 
that he, as Washington's friend, had recouped her. There 



CAR Y PA YS THE COS! OF RESTORA TION BY BIRD. 1 r i 

is nothing to show that Mr. Custis had ever made any 
application for the portrait to be returned to America, 
neither is there any evidence that Cary troubled himself 
about the money or sought to quit himself of the imposed 
possession. At the time of Sharpies' return to America, 
the portrait of Washington's mother was left behind, and 
nothing more regarding it was traceable in any after com- 
munications. Mr. Cary reimbursed Mrs. Sharpies her 
payment to Bird, and the picture seems never afterwards 
to have been claimed. It would be unjust to charge the 
portrait having been allowed to remain permanently in 
England as evidencing family indifference. It should be 
borne in mind that its disfigurement was such as rendered 
it utterly unpresentable. It had never been exhibited to 
visitors at Mount Vernon, or hung in any but a bedchamber. 
Moreover, it had been packed off in Washington's lifetime, 
and very probably had passed from recollection, an easy 
enough occurrence, consequent on delay with Bird, who 
always had his hands full and was notoriously heedless. 
At Washington and his wife's death there would be no 
remembrance of it with his executors, beyond an attic 
ragged old portrait, prized until damaged, but then considered 
worthless. Cary would be sensitive on the point of naming 
what he had paid Bird, and would be quite content to remain 
its possessor until some one applied for it. It was in Bird's 
hands for some years after Sharpies' death ; and when Cary 
passed away there was nobody who would appreciate it 
beyond the head of a very beautiful woman, said to be the 
mother of George Washington. It would appear clear, that 
but for Mrs. Sharpies and Robert Cary, it might have shared 
the sad fate of thousands of other family portraits, in being 
carted away to a broker's shop as an article of mural 
furnishing. Even as such, Mary Washington would have 
held her own ; she is, and ever will be, a beautiful woman ; 



ii2 GENERAL GRANT SEES THE PORTRAIT. 

and every beholder of her portrait, as restored by Bird, 
the Royal Academician, and who lived in her day, will ad- 
mit Mary Washington's lovely face to be all the world would 
wish it, and must feel the truth of the remark of a New 
Englander who was present with General Grant on the 
occasion of his viewing the portrait, "Anybody would know 
she's somebody." The autotype reproduction given in this 
volume proves her to have been a truly beautiful woman. 

During his last visit to England, General Grant saw the 
portrait of Washington's mother. Miss Edwardes, the 
owner, grand-niece of the Carys, having had his wish 
intimated to her, very graciously sent it to London, in 
order that he might be gratified without making a special 
journey into Northamptonshire. Grant thus feelingly ac- 
knowledged her kind attention : — 

" General Grant presents his respectful compliments to 
Miss Edwardes, the envied owner of the Middleton painting 
of Mary Washington, and begs to tender her his hearty 
thanks for exceeding kindness in sending to London, 
for his convenience and gratification, this admirable and 
evidently ' to the life ' portrait of Mary Washington, who, 
above all others, must be held in deepest affection and 
exalted remembrance by every American. 

When mentioning at the Legation his desire to see the 
portrait, he had no wish, much less any intention, to put 
Miss Edwardes to the trouble of sending the treasure so 
long a distance ; he therefore esteems more highly the 
honour conferred. He had seen the two portraits of 
General Washington, and that of Martha, his wife, by 
Sharpies, owned by Mr. Robert Cary, who, he now 
learns, was great-uncle of Miss Edwardes. He fully 
realizes all that his countrymen have said regarding the 
excellence of these fine paintings, and their value, not alone 



GEN. GRANT ON MARY WASHINGTON'S PORTRAIT. 113 

to the people among whom should be their home, but to the 
whole world. 

Of the many kindnesses shown him by friends in England, 
none is more deeply impressed. He has not removed the 
painting from the case, and has returned it in charge of a 
special messenger from the Legation. All endeavours to 
see Sharpies' portrait of Robert Fulton, or to ascertain its 
owner, have been ineffectual. Should Miss Edwardes be 
enabled to help this object, his obligations would be further 
increased. 

Whenever the day arrives for the return of these paintings 
to America, Congress will, he doubts not, unanimously do 
its duty in the matter. The painting of Mary Washington 
has especial claims as the only portrait of her known to 
exist. General Grant had hoped that Middleton's portrait 
was free for disposition, he hears therefore with regret that 
family arrangements prevent for a few years this desired 
accomplishment. 

General Grant begs to repeat his becoming sense of the 
honour done him, as also to express his entire confidence 
that at the proper time Miss Edwardes' family will give due 
weight to his countrymen's natural wish to possess the gem, 
happily, for America, under her family control." 

General Grant, from the moment of first seeing the 
Sharpies Washingtons, unhesitatingly pronounced them as 
the portraits of future universal adoption. His words were, 
" They are the likenesses of the man, they tell us that man 
wrested our country from too high-handed rule, and any- 
body can see in that face all that we know him to have 
been." These words, so distinctively characteristic of 
Grant, are forcibly true of him regarding whom they were 
uttered. The people of the United States make history 
with remarkable rapidity. Grant frequently dwelt on the 

Q 



1 14 GRANT'S OPINION EXPRESSED TO FRIENDS. 

great national good Sharpies portraits would serve, that the 
people needed a presentment more to its heart than any 
hitherto given them. Sharpies had deep sympathies with 
the sect known as " Plymouth Brethren." Grant was aware 
of this, and stated to a gentleman at the American Legation 
in London, that he could read this in his treatment of the 
Washington subjects. He doubted not their power for 
good. " What we need," he remarked to the same friend, 
" is less sensation ; we need what that face instructively 
conveys, the binding our people more closely in the bonds 
of a common brotherhood, the ensuring, under the blessing 
of a benign and merciful Providence, the unity of the 
country, and its future prosperity and peace ! These 
portraits," he added, "will help mightily in working this 
change. I wish the originals could be seen in all our large 
communities ; failing this, let the autotype reproductions 
get everywhere, but especially in the public schools." 
Grant, when thus giving expression to a cherished hope, was 
but repeating the words of Longfellow, who, just before his 
death, had so urgently named his hopeful wish they might 
be hung in all the public schools of the country. 

Like Washington, Grant has passed away to his rest. 
Whatever his aspirations at one period of life may have 
been, its close would see no joys in the brilliant events of 
victorious armies. His heart hoped for a future for his 
country coming out of unity and peace and love. At the 
close of his life he believed that the change had not come 
" through observation," that it had not been brought about 
by any special efforts on the part of patriots, much less of 
politicians ; that it was not the result of any visible move- 
ments on the part of the religious community, but that it 
came down upon the hearts of men like the dew from 
heaven, gently and silently. 

While acknowledging this to be a benison from the God 



GRANTS DEATH-ITS NATIONAL EFFECT. 115 

of peace, it is not too much to say that, so far as any 
human cause or instrumentality is concerned, the influences 
which have brought it about centred in the sick-bed of one 
man, and that the change had its culmination in the funeral 
casket which was carried to its resting-place through an 
assemblage of more than two millions of people, gathered 
from the east and the west, the north and the south, to 
witness the burial of one whose greatest glory was not in 
the martial victories he had achieved, but in the motto and 
purpose of his later life, " Peace and Goodwill." As his 
painful and fatal illness progressed, it grew more and more 
apparent that he was the link prepared of God to bind 
the sundered sections of the nation together. A spirit of 
fraternity, a forgetfulness of past animosities, this was 
breathed in every feeble utterance that came from his lips ; 
which, at the last, could be expressed only by the pencil in 
his hand, or by the grasp of that hand as he cordially 
greeted those who had once been his foes on the battle- 
field. With the brightened vision that often marks the last 
hours of the departing, he saw, as with prophetic eye, that 
the time was at hand when the long-cherished strifes of the 
early days of the Republic, which resulted at last in a 
fratricidal war, would be buried, and in the providence of 
God his was the tomb in which, we trust, they were buried. 

The city sleeps, the mighty pageant's done ; 
The radiant stars look out upon his grave 
Who marched and conquered, toiled and ruled, to save 

The land from discord's bane, and keep her one. 

What nobler service could a faithful son 

Perform, with all his heart, than that he gave 
To bind the Union fast, and free the slave ? 

These deeds will brighten as the ages run. 

Lincoln and Grant, imperishable names, 

O 2 



n6 PORTRAIT OF ROBERT FULTON. 

Henceforth with that of Washington entwined 
Above the hearth of each Columbian home ! 
Ah, such a lustrous brotherhood proclaims 
That, in the New Atlantis, live the mind 
And quenchless fortitude of youthful Rome. 

With reference to the portrait of Robert Fulton, the man 
who shares very largely the fame of first adapting the steam- 
engine to purposes of navigation, General Grant was not 
alone in his desire to get access to it. Like all others of 
Sharpies' oil portraits, excepting the Washingtons, Fulton 
and his wife's portraits were left unfinished. They were 
purchased from Mrs. Sharpies in that state. Romney or 
Bird finished the portrait of Fulton, Maclise that of his 
wife. Since their sale by Mrs. Sharpies, two individuals 
only have owned them, both more than eccentric, the present 
possessor leading a secluded life, and declining to allow any 
visitors to his costly collection of paintings, mostly por- 
traits of distinguished persons. 

Fulton was an attached friend of Sharpies. In his early 
years, as is well known, he worked and maintained himself 
as an artist. There are several portraits of his execution 
known in England. When in London he was one of Ben- 
jamin West's family household ; he and Sharpies being 
sympathizing friends, the latter desired to paint his portrait, 
seeing he was a very rising man in his newly-adopted pro- 
fession as an engineer. This he did, and it undoubtedly 
exists in England. Sharpies himself was a skilled mechanic, 
and speaks of Fulton as having greatly served him when in 
America. It is not a little remarkable that Fulton sue. 
ceeded in building a steamer capable of propulsion under 
water. He accomplished this and much more, and he was 
the father of torpedoes. It was hoped to have included his 
portrait in this volume. The desire, consequent on eccen- 
tricity of the owner, has failed of accomplishment. 




MISS JAY. 



Reproduced by the Autotype Company y London. From the original Oil Painting by James Sharpies. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

Attractive nature of female excellences— their qualities illustrated in Mary 
Washington — Good Parson Baker's teachings — Mary Washington's family 
descent — Source of her religious inspiration— The home of her youth— Her 
sponsors at baptism — Armorial bearings of her family — Washington and 
Franklin families originally residents in same part of England — Washington 
assists in removal of his mother to Fredericksburg — Her example under 
bereavement — Washington relates the advantages she received from 
Parson Baker's instruction — Remarks on his mother's portrait — Her bearing 
as a widow, and watchful care of her children — Her example meet for 
general imitation. 

What princes are, what statesmen meditate, what heroes 
achieve, is rather an object of curiosity than of utility. 
They never can become examples to the bulk of mankind. 
It is when they have descended from their public eminence, 
when they have retired to their private and domestic 
station, when the potentate is lost in the man, that they 
become objects of attention, patterns for imitation, or 
beacons set up for admonition and caution. 

The meek, the modest, the noiseless exhibition of female 
excellences occupy a smaller space in the annals of human 
nature than the noisy, bustling, forensic pursuits and em- 
ployments of men. But when feminine worth is gently 
drawn out of the obscurity which it loves, and advan- 
tageously placed in the light which it naturally shuns, O 
how amiable, how irresistible, how attractive it is ! A wise 
and good woman shines by not seeking to shine, she is 
most eloquent when she is silent, and she obtains all her 
will by yielding, by submission, by patience, bv self-denial' 



nS MARY WASHINGTON'S DESIRE AND AIM OF LIFE. 



When religion is infused into those lovely forms, how the 
interest rises, how the frame is embellished, how the 
deportment is ennobled ! 

Loving her boy with a woman's love, Mary Washington 
desired not for him any world's fame, she was, in the true 
sense of the word, humble-minded, and yet she realized 
that the life of every man was of importance to himself, to 
his family, to his friends, to his country, and in the sight 
of God. Good Parson Baker had ever been at hand, aid- 
ing her in the conveying sound instruction, as in enforcing 
of every good precept, and by his example rendering the 
same doubly valuable. She knew that they were by no 
means the best men who have made most noise in the 
world, neither were those actions most deserving of praise 
which have obtained the greatest share of fame. Scenes 
of violence and blood, the workings of ambition, of pride, 
and of revenge compose the annals of men. Whatever 
her wishes were for her children, certain it is that for 
herself she desired that when death came, time should 
spread the veil of oblivion over her. The utmost she de- 
sired for the living ones given to her charge, was, that they 
might inherit piety and purity, temperance and humility, 
which are little noticed and soon forgotten of the world, 
knowing these to be held in everlasting remembrance 
before God. In her sight to be a child of God was more 
honourable than to be descended from kings, and that a 
Christian is a much higher character than a hero. This 
consideration influenced all she undertook, all she did. 
Her aim was to tread only in the quiet, narrow path, to 
impress her children's hearts with a knowledge that the 
eyes of God are ever upon us, to live as in His sight, 
knowing that every action as it is performed, that every 
word as it is spoken, and that every thought as it arises, 
is recorded in the book of God's remembrance, and must 



SEARCH AMONG THE CARY PAPERS. 319 



come into judgment. " Keep thy heart with all diligence," 
" set a watch on the door of thy lips," and " whether you 
eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory 
of God." Mary, we know, impressed on him, Let " Thou 
God seest me " be the leading commanding idea of thy 
life, in the city, and in the field, in society, and in solitude, 
' by day and by night, and when you come to die you will 
find you have not far to go ; to be " absent from the body" 
is to be "present with the Lord." 

It has been too much the habit to say that nothing is 
known of the great patriot's mother, beyond the fact of her 
maiden name being Mary Ball, and that she was of a highly 
respectable family of English colonists. The arrival of the 
Sharpies portraits in America, and the interest they naturally 
excited, has caused minute search into such of the Cary 
papers as were preserved at his death, and much information 
of deeply interesting character has in consequence been 
unearthed. So far from non-existence of records as to her 
family, or to the early life and conduct of this illustrious 
woman, it is from this new source made known that 
Washington from his own lips communicated toSharples as 
much as suffices for an outline of the remarkable character 
she proved herself, leaving it to the world to fill the picture in. 
Studied rightly, it will be found to afford not a little instruc- 
tion to future generations of women of all nations, who, it 
may be hoped, will strive to excel in those virtues, and imitate 
the example her life and character, so signally displayed, 
set before them. 

Mary Ball, Washington's mother, was descended from an 
old English family of soldier breed, one of whom, Colonel 
William Ball, came out from England in the early part of 
the seventeenth century, and settled at the mouth of the 
river Corotoman, in Lancaster County, Virginia. Pioneer 
friends there would be, whose letters prepared the road. 



i 2 o COLONEL BALL, FATHER OF MARY WASHINGTON. 

Real or imagined slight on the part of friends in power 
had stirred the blood, and in this, as in many other cases of 
emigration before and since, caused the bidding good-bye 
to the " old country." Colonel Ball was a thorough soldier. 
He had married a young girl of English parentage, but 
whether prior to or after settling in Virginia, is not stated, 
although his wife's family were resident in the neighbour- 
hood of the Balls at the time of Mary Washington's girl- 
hood. Colonel Ball knew more of soldiership than farming, 
and there existed a tradition that he was more suited to 
command the district than to till it. He was a man of great 
physical power, a true gentleman, and died honoured, as he 
deserved to be. At his death, which occurred in 1650, he 
left two sons, William and Joseph, also one daughter named 
Hannah, who married with Daniel Fox, also of English 
parentage, though a Virginian by birth. William Ball, the 
eldest son of Colonel Ball, the original settler, left to 
his native State of Virginia a goodly legacy of eight sons 
and one daughter, five of the race leaving male issue. 
Colonel William Ball's second son Joseph's male issue had 
become extinct in 1779, though compensation for his planet 
setting was nobly yielded in answering before the world as 
the father of Mary, the mother of Washington. 

All references to Mary Ball, from the earliest publications 
to the latest, assign much of her deeply religious character 
as having been inspired by the study of Sir Matthew Hale's 
" Moral and Divine Contemplations," a copy of which 
was in Augustine Washington's home, and bore on a 
fly-leaf the signatures of both his wives. Augustine's 
wiving had been happy in both efforts. Jane Butler we 
know, through Washington himself, was " fair to behold, 
and good as she was fair," and it is enough to learn from 
the same highest of all authority, "well educated." There 
cannot exist any desire to detract from the part until now 



AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON'S WIVES. 121 

assigned the worthy Sir Matthew Hale in laying the 
concrete foundation of Mary's beautiful character ; by all 
means give him his full share, even under the new revelation 
that he was not her only study, and that she drank deeply 
at other streams of knowledge and thought. It was the 
happy province of both of Augustine Washington's wives 
to dwell only within the quiet precincts of domestic retire- 
ment ; they were neither of them " strong-minded," in the 
modern sense, they were truly feminine, exemplifying that 
the life of a woman, almost in proportion as it is true to the 
loftiest impulses and purest principles by which she can be 
actuated, presents comparatively few incidents claiming cir- 
cumstantial record or remembrance. Though the wife, or the 
mother of one who fills a large space in the world's eye, it 
is still usually hers to dwell only within the quiet precincts 
of domestic retirement. Margaret Conkling, in her admir- 
able little work on Mary and Martha Washington, has 
eloquently written : " The hero, like a majestic river, that 
bears the wealth of cities on its ample waters, and diffuses 
benefits to thousands, speeds onward in his high career, 
his steps resounding in the ears of listening nations ; while 
the mother, from whom, perchance, he derived the intel- 
lectual power that impels and sustains his lofty course, 
still, like a life-giving fountain whose sweet, bright waters 
diffuse beauty and health and happiness, lingers ever in the 
shade, revered in the protecting sanctity of home." 





and C }Rcvru ji-Cdn+riaJfr^ 
The bold characters of the signatures of Jane Butler and 

R 



122 MARY WASHINGTON'S HOME AND CH1IDREN. 

Mary Ball evidence that in both the fair ones distinctness 
and legibility had been well taught. These important 
characteristics were more in vogue in their days than in 
our own time of more scrambling manner. 

The homestead occupied by Augustine Washington and 
his fair brides, and where Mary gave birth to George, was 
more humble in its character than would now be looked 
for in the home of persons in their position. It is not said 
the family were possessed of any store of wealth ; had he 
been so endowed, Colonel William Ball would possibly have 
never wandered away to seek fortune in Virginia. Their 
home was unpretending, but they were content with it ; 
once arriving at that happy state, its unprepossessing ex- 
terior would cease to be an eye-trouble. Mary was in her 
eight-and-twentieth year when she gave birth to George. 
William Gooch was Royal Governor of Virginia at the time, 
and Augustine Washington and his wife were frequent visitors 
as guests at his residence. Mary was then held and spoken 
of as the handsomest woman of her time, and held her per- 
sonal charms much beyond the period usual with her sex. 
Middleton's portrait of Mary Washington was painted a 
few months before the birth of her son George. 




DUTCH TILE IN CHIMNEY- TIECE OF THE OLD HOMESTEAD. 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDA Y. 



[23 



Washington's birth-place, we are told, was a four-roomed 
house, with a chimney at each end, perfectly plain outside 
and in. The only approach to ornament was a Dutch-tiled 
chimney-piece in the best room, covered with rude pictures 
of Scriptural scenes ; but around the house there were thrift 
and abundance. 



/?K 



-^i#— 




More than three hundred years have elapsed since Pope 
Gregory the Thirteenth ordained that ten days should be 
added to the tally of all times since the birth of the Saviour, 
in order to make up some fractional deficiencies in the 
calendar, and twenty-three-years after this papal record was 
made, the British Government ordered the Gregorian 
Kalendar, or "new style," as it was called, to be adopted. 
The deficiency was then eleven days, and these were 
added. Accordingly we date the birth of Washington and 
celebrate its anniversary on the 22nd instead of the 1 ith of 
February. 

This natal day of the Immortal is defined through an old 
family Bible of quarto form, dilapidated by use and age, 
and covered with Virginia striped cloth, and which record 
is in the handwriting of the patriot's father, in these words, 

R 2 



I24 WASHINGTON'S SPONSORS AT BAPTISM. 



" George William, son to Augustine Washington, and Mary, 
his wife, was born ye eleventh day of February, 1 731-2, 
about ten in the morning, and was baptized the 3rd April 
following, Mr. Bromley Whiting, and Captain Christopher 
Brooks godfathers, and Mrs. Mildred Gregory god- 
mother." 

All three of these were neighbours and friends. Mr. 
Bromley Whiting was a landowner residing close by, 
Captain Christopher Brooks also resided on his own pro- 
perty, his commission being in the local militia, and Mrs. 
Mildred Gregory, an attached friend of her who was then 
so unconscious of the future greatness of him to whom she 
had so recently given birth. She was a woman of sound 
religious principles, one that the mother knew had a right 
sense of sponsors' duties, and entered thereon with full 
resolve to support and aid her loved friend in the inculca- 
tion of principles conferring happiness in the world that is, 
and leading to bliss in the everlasting life beyond. 

In the possession of an old Virginian family exists a 
roughly made picture, in which is represented a rampant 
lion, holding a globe in his paw, a helmet and shield, a 
vizor strong, and coat of mail, and other emblems of 
strength and courage, and for a motto the words of 
Ovid— 

" Ccelumque Tueri." 






At the back of the picture is written, " The coat of arms 
of William Ball, who came from England with his family 
about the year 1650, and settled at the mouth of Corotoma 
River, in Lancaster County, Virginia, and died in 1669, 
leaving two sons, William and Joseph, and one daughter, 
Hannah, who married Daniel Fox. William left eight sons 
(and one daughter), five of whom have (Anno Domini, 1 779) 
male issue. Joseph's male issue is extinct. General 



WASHINGTON &> FRANKLIN FAMILIES IN ENGLAND. 1 2 = 



George Washington is his grandson, by his youngest 
daughter Mary." 




THE BALL ARMS AS EXHIBITED IN THE AMERICAN HOMESTEAD. 

In these early days all the names mentioned in connection 
with occurring events were zealous royalists, or what in 
England would be termed tories, and it is also a remarkable 
fact that the families of Washington and Franklin had been 
established in the same county of Northamptonshire in 
England, and within a few miles of each other, the Wash- 
ingtons aff»ulgrave, belonging to the landed gentry of the 
county, and in the great civil war had fought on the royal 
side ; the Franklins at the village of Exton, living on the 
produce of a farm of thirty acres, and the earnings of their 
trade as blacksmiths, and espousing, some of them at 
least, and the father and uncle of Benjamin Franklin among 
the number, the principles of the Nonconformists. Their 
respective emigration, germs of great events in history, took 
place, that of John Washington, the great-grandfather of 
George, in 1657, to loyal Virginia ; that of Josiah, the father 
of Benjamin Franklin, about the year 1685, to the metropolis 
of Puritan New England. There are now several families of 



i 2 6 A MOTHER'S INFLUENCE. 

Washingtons claiming as belonging to the true and same 
stock. One especially in a small village called Meols, near 
the entrance of the river Mersey, close to Wallasey, Cheshire. 
These folk are small farmers and fishermen, but have through 
several generations steadfastly adhered to the story of their 
clanship. 

The events of the disordered times immediately preceding 
the Revolution followed each other in startling and fitful 
succession, and finally resulting in the ever-memorable 
Declaration of Independence, Mrs. Washington suddenly 
beheld her son elevated to a position surrounded by dangers 
the most imminent, and comprehending responsibilities the 
most solemn and portentous that can devolve upon human 
agency. Resting her fears, her aspirations, and her faith 
upon that support which could alone sustain the spirit of so 
affectionate and so discerning a parent, amid trials peculiar 
and severe, we see this heroic woman resigning herself with 
the same tranquil submission and the same unaffected cheer- 
fulness by which her life had hitherto been distinguished to 
the decrees of an overruling and inscrutable destiny. 

Whatever be the dispositions, whatever the faculties of 
the child, whether earlier or later in life, the business neither 
of father nor masters can proceed wisely and well without 
the co-operation of the mother. Who knows so well as 
she the road to the understanding, the road to the heart ? 
Who has skill like her to encourage the timid and to repress 
the bold ? Who has power and address like a mother's 
to subdue the stubborn and confirm the irresolute ? Who 
can with such exquisite art draw out, put in motion, and 
direct ordinary or superior powers ? Who can so well 
place goodness in its fairest and most attractive light, and 
expose vice in its most hideous and forbidding form ? 
Having been trained up, when a child, in the way wherein 
he should walk, " the man calls it to remembrance in old 



MARYWASHINGTON'SFIRSTFAREWELL TO HER SON. 127 

age, he approves it, he returns to it," and " departs from 
it " no more. 

Before his departure from his native State, to assume 
the command of the patriots assembled at Cambridge, the 
Commander-in-Chief, ever mindful of his mother's comfort 
and happiness, even when most burdened by public cares 
and obligations, assisted in effecting her removal from her 
country residence in its vicinity to Fredericksburg. 

Mrs. Washington was remunerated for thus renouncing 
a home hallowed by many tender and time-honoured asso- 
ciations, the peaceful asylum of her youthful family in the 
days of her early bereavement, the scene of their innocent 
sports, their juvenile education, and of her own strenuous 
exertions and self-sacrificing devotion during so many years 
of her life, by being placed in much nearer proximity to her 
friends and relatives, and in a position more secure from 
danger than any precaution could have rendered an isolated 
rural abode. Bestowing on him the more than aegis-shield 
of her blessing and her prayers, Mrs. Washington bade 
adieu to her son for a period, the duration and events of 
which no mortal vision could even faintly discern. 

Long familiar with the most effectual means of escape 
from the dominion of too anxious thought, she hastened, 
after this painful parting, to busy herself with the arrange- 
ment and care of her new home, and sought in active 
usefulness and industry not only the solace of her own 
" private griefs " and apprehensions, but the high pleasure 
that springs from the consciousness of doing good. Ever 
possessed of far too much genuine self-respect and 
enlightenment to regard the necessity of homely toil as 
degrading or unfortunate, her practical ingenuity and per- 
sonal efforts now supplied, in a good degree, the many 
deficiencies and deprivations arising from the pressing 
exigencies of the times, and materially assisted not only in 



1 2S MA R 1 r 'S CONSOLA TION FROM RELIGION. 

providing for the wants of her own household, but in fur- 
nishing the means of that liberal charity which she had 
always exercised, notwithstanding her limited resources, and 
which was not remitted when increasing occasion had arisen 
for its continuance. 

What an example under bereavement is seen in more 
than one deprivation suffered by Mary Washington in the 
course of her life ! She set before her circle of friends that 
the most obvious and natural consolations of reason, 
under the loss of those dearly loved, as well as one of 
the most abundant consolations furnished by religion, is 
the belief that departed friends are at their death disposed 
of infinitely to their advantage. We weep and mourn 
while we reflect upon the deprivation of comfort which 
we have sustained, but we wipe the tears of sorrow from 
our eyes when we consider that our loss is their unspeak- 
able gain. "Rachel, weeping for her children," refuses to 
be comforted so long as she thinks "they are not;" 
but her soul is tranquillized and comforted when her 
eyes in faith look within the veil, and behold them softly 
and securely reposing in the bosom of their Father and 
God. 

The reconciliation of interrupted friendship, wrote Mary 
Washington to one who had been dear to her, but who, 
from causes of her own making, had for some years been 
estranged so far as she herself was concerned, "is one of 
the chief delights of human life. The pleasure of meeting 
again, after long absence, one whom we love, obliterates in 
a moment the pain caused by separation, and one hour of 
sweet communication compensates the languor, solicitude, 
and gloom of many years." 

The innocent endearments of natural affection and the 
honest communications of private friendship are graciously 
intended to alleviate the cares of public life, and to 



MARY'S SELF-DEPENDENCE AND USEFULNESS. 129 

strengthen the mind by diverting it from incessant and 
intense application to serious business. No man can 
always be a general, a statesman, or a king. And happy 
it is for those who occupy those exalted but troublesome 
stations that they are frequently permitted to sink the 
public in the private character, and to drop the hero, the 
senator, the judge, the sovereign, in the man. 

Though long past the meridian of life, her equanimity, 
her healthful habits, and the systematic uniformity of her 
daily existence still gave Mrs. Washington the physical 
power essential for carrying into effect her plans of self- 
dependence and benevolent usefulness. It was at this 
time her almost daily custom, seated in an old-fashioned 
open chaise, to visit her little farm in the vicinity of the 
town, and while there to drive about the fields giving 
directions and personally superintending their execution. 

In course of an earnest conversation with his English 
artist friend, when taking a before-breakfast morning walk 
at Mount Vernon, Washington spoke with fervour of his 
mother's sound education, and the great advantages she 
had enjoyed in the tuition for several years of the Rev. 
Thomas Baker, a man of refined education, and who had 
been brought up in one of the old grammar-schools of 
England, and was a sound classical scholar. Mr. Baker 
had followed the fortunes of an old college friend, coming 
to Virginia with him, and settling down quietly on the new 
soil to care for the souls of his friend and family and neigh- 
bours, though never swerving in love and devotion to the 
old country. The arrival of the mail was in those days the 
event in the lives of such as owed their birth away across 
the ocean. Its transit was confided to small sailing packets 
from Falmouth, commanded by officers of the Navy ; bonny 
little craft they were, and occasionally making rapid 
passages to the Westward, so also it was no uncommon 

S 



i 3 o REV. THOMAS BAKER MARTS INSTRUCTOR. 

occurrence for them to take eight or nine weeks in getting 
out. The commanders of these vessels were great men in 
their little world ; their names, as well as those of the mar- 
vels of naval architecture over which they were monarchs, 
were well known in every Virginian home, including that of 
the Rev. Thomas Baker especially, who received goodly 
stores of news by each, and whose life would have been an 
intolerable blank but for these Falmouth packets, whose 
arrivals were the golden events of his existence. 

Thomas Baker availed of the Falmouth packets to keep 
up active correspondence with old University chums, and 
became a very fountain of European intelligence among the 
various English families who had turned their backs on the 
"old country," and adopted Virginia as their land of pro- 
mise. He had extensive acquaintance with officers of the 
army, and received intelligence of the movements of the 
various regiments, and the promotions and varying fortunes 
of officers known to the families forming this small, but affec- 
tionately united Virginian circle. This gave eager interest to 
his budgets, not a little enhanced by communications from a 
sister, wife of an English member of Parliament, who sup- 
plied the Court gossip, served up in a manner that none but 
a woman's pen can uniquely supply. This lady of facile pen 
dilated fully on all great measures under discussion in 
Parliament, and gave fitting space to whatever was most 
worthy of attention in Church and other matters. The 
Baker despatches contained numerous excerpts from news- 
papers, such as prominent topics of news, speeches of 
public men, and other matters beyond the limit of even an 
unusually voluminous letter. The postage of such was no 
mean consideration, cents of our day were then incapable of 
much, a levy of shillings was the postal demand for each des- 
patch to the Rev. Thomas Baker, and in every instance 
ungrudgingly yielded from his perhaps slender purse. 



MARY'S PORTRAIT; ITS MAIMED CONDITION. 131 

Augustine Washington had found a treasure in his college 
chum, clearly a man of far higher accomplishments than 
had been possessed by Williams, who later on became pre- 
ceptor to his son George, and who is authoritatively quoted 
as " a capital hand at reading, spelling, English grammar, 
arithmetic, surveying, book-keeping, and geography." 
Justly, he boasted of having instilled these branches of 
erudition into the mind of his pupil, for there is ample proof 
that he mastered all. Thomas Baker, though doubtless in 
no way neglectful of the essential studies in which his 
successor in the Washington family had so thoroughly 
grounded his pupil, had clearly led his mother's mind to 
dwell earnestly and profitably on other and higher 
branches. 

Washington is quoted by Sharpies as using these words 
in regard to his revered mother's education, and the admir- 
able manner in which it had for some years been directed 
by the spiritual friend who had cared for her with so great 
earnestness and devotion. 

" Thomas Baker was a man of refined education, and 
devoted much of his leisure, of which he had a good deal, 
in grounding my mother in religious knowledge, which her 
mind was naturally inclined to receive, so also in directing 
her studies in such other branches of instruction as he 
deemed most fitting and likely to serve her in the educa- 
tion of children. He was in the habit of reading transla- 
tions of portions of the best classic authors, and which he 
was very apt in making interesting by contrasts with modern 
writers. This most excellent man derived very real pleasure 
in these labours of love, and strove his utmost with, as he was 
pleased to speak of my mother, ' the most amiable, and yet 
the most impressional character I have ever known, a girl 
of great personal attractions, and yet utterly unconscious 
of their possession.' 

S 2 



i 3 2 MARY WASHINGTON'S PORTRAIT BY MIDDIETON. 

" In addition to the instruction so earnestly imparted 
by this friend, from whom we were so early in life 
separated, my mother derived much advantage from the 
teaching of a French lady of Huguenot family, who resided 
with friends in her neighbourhood, a woman of marked 
attainments and studies of a higher class than those usually 
entered upon by young women. This lady deemed it in no 
way inconsistent with her Christian character and profes- 
sion to impress rules for female deportment and the 
gracefully taking part in minuet dancing, in which my 
mother's tall and perfect figure specially adapted her to 
shine, as she did beyond most of the other youthful fair ones 
even of Virginia, in grace and elegance." 

In his memoranda of dailv life at Mount Vernon, trans- 
mitted to his wife in Philadelphia, Sharpies alludes almost 
pathetically to the condition of the portrait of " the Chief's 
mother." " I would have liked to gratify him by putting 
it to rights ; but apart from its maimed state, it needs more 
than I can properly manage, it should pass through the 
hands of one accustomed to such work. There is much 
in it needing to be painted out, and it has been cruelly in- 
jured through exposure to great fire heat. His reverence for 
the ill-used relic is extreme." Referring to it and his mother, 
he remarked, " Who can define the beginning of a mother's 
education of her children?" Following up the thought 
he further observed, " How few realize that the character 
of most men is formed and fixed before it is apprehended 
that they have, or can have, any character at all. Many 
fatally imagine that the few first years of life may be dis- 
posed of as we please ; that a little neglect may easily be 
rectified. Never mind the morning ; sleep it, trifle it away ; 
a little closer application at noon will recover the loss. 
The spring returns, the flowers appear upon the earth, 
the time of the singing of birds is come. Sing with the 



MARY AS A YOUNG WIDOW. 133 



birds, skip with the fawn, the diligence of a more advanced, 
more propitious season will bring everything round, and the 
year shall be crowned with the horn of plenty. Reason 
should detect and expose such absurdity, yet human con- 
duct exhibits it in almost universal prevalence. Infancy 
and childhood are cast away; the morning is lost ; the seed- 
time cast away, and with the natural consequences : a life 
full of confusion, an old age full of regret ; a day of un- 
necessary toil, and a night of vexation ; a hurried summer, 
a meagre autumn, a comfortless winter." 

To the abiding effect of early maternal training, Mary 
Washington was largely indebted for her habits of unusual 
industry, economy, and regularity, as well as for the ex- 
cellent constitution that gave vigour and practical useful- 
ness to the operations of a naturally powerful intellect. 
To the ineffaceable impressions of infant years may also be 
ascribed the moral elevation and the exalted piety asso- 
ciated with her noble mind. Her affliction, in the premature 
death of her husband, which occurred April 13th, 1743, m 
their home at Fredericksburg, would with many have 
proved overwhelming. This almost sudden event left her 
with limited pecuniary resources the sole controller and 
guide of several children. 

The having in early life the calamity of becoming a 
widow is a distressing, a delicate situation. It calls for 
every maxim of prudence, every council of friendship, every 
caution of experience, every support of piety. If a mourner 
indeed, she is guarded against affectation, and finds rational 
and certain relief in attending to and performing the duties 
of her station. She neither seeks a hasty cure of sorrow 
by plunging into the world, nor attempts an unnatural pro- 
longation of it by affected retirement and sequestration. 
The tongue of Mary Washington uttered no rash vows, the 
pang of separation dictated no ensnaring resolutions, the 



136 HER HOME FREE FROM UNNATURAL RESTRAINT. 

indefatigable industry and ingenuity, whatever was neces- 
sary to the welfare and comfort of her family. Order, re- 
gularity, and occupation reigned supreme in her little 
world of home. She exacted implicit obedience from her 
children, and she tempered maternal tenderness with strict 
discipline; for we are told by Laurence Washington, of 
Chotank, who, as the companion of her son, occasionally 
shared her care and hospitality, that she was " indeed truly 
kind." He thus described his distinguished relative : "I 
was often there with George, his playmate, schoolmate, 
and young man's companion. Of the mother I was more 
afraid than of my own parents ; she awed me in the midst 
of her kindness, for she was indeed truly kind, and even 
now, when time has whitened my locks, and I am the 
grandfather of a second generation, I could not behold 
that majestic woman without feelings it is impossible to 
describe." In that genuine and judicious kindness lies the 
secret of the power always maintained by this venerated 
mother over the minds of her offspring. If she assumed 
the right to direct the actions of others, her daily life 
exhibited such powers of self-control and self-denial as 
convinced her children, by more irresistible evidence than 
words could possibly convey, of the justice and disin- 
terestedness by which she was habitually actuated. 

That she rendered their home — simple, nay, even humble, 
though it might be — endearing to her children, is proved 
by the frequency and pleasure with which the happy band 
that once rejoiced in the comfort and security of her well- 
ordered abode, in after years revisited the maternal roof. 
An interdiction of the innocent amusements and relaxa- 
tions, a taste for which is so natural to the young, formed 
no part of the system of juvenile training practised with 
such pre-eminent success by Mary Washington. She never 
rendered necessary restraint and discipline needlessly dis- 



MARY'S INCULCATION OF LOVE OF TRUTH. 



137 



tasteful or repulsive by ascetic sternness or harsh compul- 
sion. The power that sometimes gently coerced the subjects 
of her guidance was a moral suasion, far more effective and 
beneficial than influences such as those can ever exert. 

Of all the mental qualities of this celebrated woman, 
perhaps none was more constantly illustrated in her life than 
her native good sense, the practical effects'of which were 
infinitely more useful and precious to her children than she 
could possibly have rendered volumes of theoretical precept, 
however philosophical and profound. To her possession of 
this unpretending, but invaluable characteristic, emphatically, 
her illustrious son was indebted for the education that 
formed the basis of his greatness. This it was that taught 
the great Washington those habits of application, industry, 
and regularity that were of such essential service to him,' 
alike in the camp and in the cabinet, and which so 
materially contributed to render his character a perfect 
model, bequeathed to successive ages. This it was, that 
by inculcating and enforcing habitual temperance, exercise! 
and activity, strengthened and developed the wonderful 
physical powers that were rivalled only by the indomitable 
will and stupendous wisdom of her son. 

To his mother Washington owed the high value he 
attached to "the only possession of which all men are 
prodigal, and of which all men should be covetous:" and 
from her early instructions he imbibed that love of truth for 
which he was remarkable, and which is so pleasingly and 
forcibly illustrated in some of the favourite anecdotes of our 
childhood. 1 

Trained to unvarying respect for the truths of revealed 

1 Juvenile readers can scarcely fail to be familiar with the stories of 
"The Little Hatchet," and of "The Sorrel Colt," almost the only 
authentic anecdotes of the childhood of the great patriot, and which 
also incidentally illustrate more than one of his youthful habits. 

T 



[ 3 3 GREAT GRATITUDE DUE TO HER EXAMPLE. 



religion, in which she was herself a firm believer, and 
rigidly regardful of the dictates of an enlightened conscience, 
her gifted son was indebted to his mother for his quick 
moral sense, and the unflinching adhesion to principle that 
so strongly marked every act of his public and private life. 

Mary Washington, we know, had all these things in 
her heart. It is the ordinance of Providence that the 
heaviest and most important part of education should 
devolve >non the mother. The fleety period which a son 
passes unaV ; the shadow of her wing should be a season 
sacred to wisdom and piety. If the mother lead not her 
son to the hallowed spring, if she fail to disclose to his 
eager eye and panting heart the loveliness of goodness, 
the excellency of religion ; if she permit the luxuriant soil 
to be overrun with briars and thorns, in vain will she strive 
to redeem the lost opportunity by restraints and punish- 
ments, by precepts and masters, by schools and colleges, 
in a more advanced stage of life. The good or the mischief 
is done by the time that he comes out of her hands. 

That Providence which imposes this employment on 
the feebler sex as a task, has contrived to render it the 
highest and most exquisite of female comforts ; as in truth 
all impositions, nay, the very chastisements of Heaven 
are really blessings. Ask the good mother if there be any 
joy like the joy of hearing her child repeat the lessons which 
she taught him. Ask her if she recollects or regards her 
pain and anguish ; her anxious days and sleepless nights. 
Ask her if all is not forgotten and lost in the progress which 
expanding faculties have made, and in the richer harvest 
which they promise. Ask her if she has not already received 
more than her reward. If this be just in its application to 
the mother of the world's true Patriot, then let it procure for 
mothers the respect and gratitude which every dutiful child 
finds highest gratification in rendering. 




MRS. YAK RANSAKAER. 



Reproduced by the Autotype Company^ London. From the. original Oil Painting by lames Sharpies. 




CHAPTER IX. 

Washington's pursuit in life directed by his mother — Mary Washington's life 
one of general privacy — Letter from Washington to his mother — 
Another letter assuring deference to her wishes — Mary's estimate of 
human greatness — Her interest deep though not over-sanguine of the 
triumph of America in the struggle — Her thankfulness at the success in 
passage of the Delaware — Her fervent gratitude in the surrender of Lord 
Cornwallis— Her meeting her son after this eventful occurrence — The ball 
at Fredericksburg — Declines relinquishing her independent home — Her 
home happiness and abstemious life — Lafayette's visit— Washington's last 
visit and general submission to his mother. 

The life of Mary Washington, for several years previous 
to the American Revolution, was passed almost in strict 
privacy. The incipient workings of the mighty spirit destined 
to achievements that should move the world, influenced, 
however, the youthful Washington, when only fourteen years 
of age, to form plans for his independent maintenance. 
He had actually taken the necessary steps preliminary to 
entering the English Navy, when the disapproval of his 
mother prevented the accomplishment of his design. Who 
shall say that the decisive interposition of his only parent 
did not save from a life of limited usefulness and com- 
parative obscurity the embryo soldier and statesman ? 

A few years later, when he had reached early manhood, 
the young Virginian commenced his initiatory military 
career in the service of his native State. 

T 2 



Ho DEATH OF MRS. WASHINGTON'S ELDEST SONS. 

In 1774 occurred, successively, the deaths of Mrs. 
Washington's two eldest sons, the younger of whom was 
soon followed to the grave by her husband's only child by 
his first wife. The influence of this rapid and mournful 
diminution of her family circle upon the wounded affections 
of Mary Washington must have been most saddening. 

The only letters addressed to his mother, included in the 
published collection of General Washington's Correspon- 
dence, were written during the French War, in the earliest 
stages of which he served as adjutant of the northern 
division of Virginia militia, and as aide-de-camp to 
General Braddock. The first of these epistles was penned 
just after the memorable and disastrous battle of the 
Monongahela, at which nothing but the unconquerable 
determination, that not even severe illness could subdue, 
enabled the author to be present ; and where, if he won 
some of his proudest laurels, he was perhaps exposed to 
greater personal danger than during any subsequent part 
of his military career. 

This letter conveys an idea of the dignified and confi- 
dential intercourse that was uninterruptedly maintained 
between these distinguished correspondents : — 

"To Mrs. Mary Washington, near Fredericksburg. 

" Fort Cumberland, 1 8th July, 1755. 

" Honoured Madam, — As I doubt not but you have 
heard of our defeat, and, perhaps, had it represented in a 
worse light, if possible, than it deserves, I have taken this 
earliest opportunity to give you some account of the engage- 
ment as it happened, within ten miles of the French Fort, on 
Wednesday, the 9th instant. 

" We marched to that place, without any considerable 
loss, having only now and then a straggler picked up by 
the French and scouting Indians. When we came there, 



LETTERS FROM WASHINGTON TO HIS MOTHER. 141 



we were attacked by a party of French and Indians, whose 
number, I am persuaded, did not exceed three hundred 
men ; while ours consisted of about one thousand three 
hundred well-armed troops, chiefly regular soldiers, who 
were struck with such a panic, that they behaved with more 
cowardice than it is possible to conceive. The officers 
behaved gallantly, in order to encourage their men, for which 
they suffered greatly, there being near sixty killed and 
wounded — a large portion of the number we had. 

' The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and 
were nearly all killed ; for I believe, out of three companies 
that were there, scarcely thirty men are left alive. Captain 
Peyrouny and all his officers, down to a corporal, were 
killed. Captain Poison had nearly as hard a fate, for only 
one of his was left. In short, the dastardly behaviour of 
those they call regulars exposed all others that were inclined 
to do their duty to almost certain death ; and at last, in 
despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they 
ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to 
rally them. 

' The General was wounded, of which he died three days 
after. Sir Peter Halkes was killed in the field, where died 
many other brave officers. I luckily escaped without a 
wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two 
horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris, two of 
the aides-de-camp, were wounded early in the engagement, 
which rendered the duty harder upon me, as I was the only 
one then left to distribute the General's orders, which I was 
scarcely able to do, as I was not half recovered from a 
violent illness that had confined me to my bed and a 
waggon for ten days. I am still in a weak and feeble con- 
dition, which induces me to halt here two or three days, in 
the hope of recovering a little strength, to enable me to 
proceed homewards ; from whence I fear I shall not be able 



1 42 APPOINTMENT TO COMMAND IN VIRGINIA. 

to stir till towards September ; so that I shall not have the 
pleasure of seeing you till then, unless it be in Fairfax. 
Please to give my love to Mr. Lewis and my sister ; and 
compliments to Mr. Jackson, and all other friends that 
inquire after me. 

" I am, most honoured Madam, 

" Your most dutiful son." 

■\ 

From other sources it is known that the indisposition of 
which the writer so briefly speaks, in this epistle, was 
sufficiently serious to endanger his life. Nor can we 
believe his own intimation to have conveyed the first 
knowledge of this distressing intelligence to his mother. 
She had, however, the consolation to be, at the same time, 
informed of all that she could hope or even desire, in relation 
to his personal prowess and military skill. 1 

The remaining letter was written in anticipation of an 
event which occurred soon after the Battle of the Monon- 
gahela — the appointment of Colonel Washington to the 
chief command of the Virginia forces. His commission 
bears the same date as that of the letter, though the author 
was, as yet, uninformed of his promotion. 

"To Mrs. Mary Washington. 

" Mount Vernon, 14th August, 1755. 

" Honoured Madam, — If it is in my power to avoid 

going to the Ohio again I shall, but if the command is 

pressed upon me, by the general voice of the country, and 

offered upon such terms as cannot be objected against, it 

1 It need scarcely be said that this was the celebrated engagement in which 
Colonel Washington gained so much honour, and the disastrous result of 
which was nearly averted by his daring courage, as it also might have been 
by his ready discernment and sagacious tactics, had General Braddock been 
guided by his advice in the incipient stages of the conflict. 



MARY'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN GREATNESS. 143 

would reflect dishonour upon me to refuse it. And that, I 
am sure, ought to give you greater uneasiness than my 
going in an honourable command. Upon no other terms 
will I accept of it. At present, I have no proposals made 
to me, nor have I any advice of such an intention, except 
from private hands. 

" I am, &c." 

The almost deprecatory tone that characterizes this 
epistle, the deference it indicates to the wishes and 
opinions of the parent to whom it was addressed, mark the 
character of the writer. It was apparently written in reply 
to a previous communication from his mother in relation 
to the same subject. Many practical objections to the 
acceptance of the post of Commander-in-Chief of the 
Virginian Frontier Army existed at this juncture ; and we 
may infer that the sagacious and far-seeing maternal eye 
discerned these difficulties, and that Mrs. Washington 
counselled her son to avoid responsibilities that existing 
and uncontrollable circumstances might easily render not 
only objectionable, but for many reasons to be avoided. 

Mary Washington had a right estimate of human great- 
ness. She knew that the lives of most men, from the womb 
to the grave, pass away unobserved, unregarded, unknown. 
When their course is finished the whole history of it shrinks 
into two little articles ; on such a day they were born, and 
after so many days they died. Of those who emerge out 
of the general obscurity, some begin their public career at 
an advanced period of life, and it consists of a few shining, 
interesting, important events, and is confined within the 
compass of a very few fleeting years, while the progress of 
a little selected band, whom an indulgent Providence has 
vouchsafed signally to nobilitate, and whom the historic 
pencil is fond to delineate, is distinguished from the cradle 



t 4 4 MARY'S POWER OF ENSURING OBEDIENCE. 

to the tomb by an uninterrupted series of splendid incidents, 
exemplary virtues, and brilliant actions. She had rendered 
prominent to her son in his earlier years only those exhibit- 
ing a mixture in which goodness predominates and finally 
prevails ; in which virtue is seen wading through difficulties, 
struggling with temptation, recovering from error, gathering 
strength from weakness, learning wisdom from experience, 
sustaining itself by dependence upon God, seeking refuge 
from its own frailty and imperfection in Divine compassion. 
The fanciful representations from stories of fiction rarely 
amused — edify her they could not. 

Daniel Webster, and since his day, Emerson, has con- 
firmed the remark that the American people do not suffer 
from any over-reverence. It was a mild way of putting it, 
but certainly children of the New World do not, as a rule, 
make a great fuss when the old birds go to roost, and there 
is reason for thus accepting God's will with resignation. 
In the case of Mary Washington there is good reason 
for keeping her in mind ; irrespective of her being the 
mother of the nation's great founder, she was a very 
remarkable character, though full of true feminine sweet- 
ness. 

Mrs. Washington is said to have required from those 
about her a prompt and literal obedience, somewhat resem- 
bling that demanded by proper military subordination ; a 
habit doubtless arising, in some degree, from a conscious- 
ness of the mental power that enabled her rightly to judge 
and wisely to direct. On one occasion, as we are told, she 
reproved an agent who, relying upon his own judgment, 
had disobeyed her orders, saying, " I command you, — there 
is nothing left for you but to obey ! " 

Thus, while occupied in her favourite pursuits, and pre- 
served from all sense of loneliness by the frequent and 
interesting visits of her children and grandchildren, who 



RECEPTION OF NEWS OF DELAWARE PASSAGE. 145 

were invariably most assiduous and affectionate in their 
endeavours to contribute to her happiness, several years 
rolled away. Nor, as may well be supposed, did Mrs. 
Washington in the meanwhile look with an unobservant or 
unsympathizing eye upon the changing and momentous 
aspect of public affairs. Her residence in Fredericksburg 
enabled her early to obtain the most important intelligence 
of the day, and we may believe the respectful attention of her 
son speedily and constantly supplied her with information 
denied to those possessing less claim upon his confidence 
and regard. 

If not always as sanguine of the ultimate triumph of the 
American arms as more youthful and ardent spectators of 
the Revolutionary contest, she watched the progress of 
national affairs with patient and tranquil expectation. Fre- 
quently raising her thoughtful gaze from the painful con- 
templation of her country's struggles towards the Omni- 
potent Friend who aids the sacred cause of Liberty and 
Right, she gained a firm and hopeful constancy that 
shielded her noble spirit alike from unfounded enthusiasm 
and desponding distrust, and that rendered her an example 
worthy of all honour to those mothers who, like herself, had 
resigned their sons to their country in the hour of her 
greatest need. 

When the glorious and heart-warming intelligence of the 
successful passage of the Delaware, 1 by Washington and 
his brave companions in arms, was communicated to his 
mother by the numerous friends who hastened to rejoice 
with and to felicitate her upon so auspicious and important 
an occurrence, she received the tidings with placid self- 
possession, and expressed her pleasure at the brightening 
prospects of her native land. But in relation to such 
portions of the despatches of her visitors as contained 

1 Dec. 1776. 

U 



i 4 6 THE NEWS OF CORNIVALLIS' DEFEAT. 

eulogistic allusions to her son, she simply remarked that 
" George appeared to have deserved well of his country for 
such signal services," and added, — 

" But, my good sirs, here is too much flattery ! still 
George will not forget the lessons I have taught him ; he 
will not forget himself, though he is the subject of so much 
praise." 

And when, after the lapse of long, dark years of national 
gloom and suffering, Mrs. Washington was at last informed 
of the crowning event of the great conflict (it was to 
her son's thoughtful care she owed the Express pre- 
viously despatched to her with the grateful news of 
the surrender of Lord Cornwallis), she raised her hands 
with profound reverence and gratitude towards Heaven 
and fervently exclaimed, " Thank God ! war will now be 
ended, and peace, independence, and happiness bless our 
country ! " 

An interval of nearly seven perilous and adventurous 
years had passed, when Mrs. Washington enjoyed the 
happiness again to behold her victor-crowned and illustrious 
son. 

Upon the return of the combined armies from Yorktown, 
the Commander-in-Chief repaired immediately to 
Fredericksburg, attended by a numerous and splendid suite, 
composed of the most distinguished European and American 
officers who had shared his protracted toils and his final 
triumph. No sooner had Washington dismounted than he 
sent a messenger to apprise his mother of his arrival, with 
a request to be informed when it would be her pleasure to 
receive him. Then, dismissing for a time the attributes and 
attendants of greatness, he repaired unaccompanied, and 
on foot, to the modest mansion where his venerable parent 
awaited his coming. 

Mrs. Washington was alone, and occupied in some 



MARY'S INDIFFERENCE TO THE WORLD'S GLORY. 147 

ordinary domestic avocation, when the gladdening intelli- 
gence of her son's approaching visit was communicated 
to her. She met him on the threshold with a cordial 
embrace, her face beaming with unmingled pleasure, and 
welcomed him by the endearing and well-remembered 
appellation associated with the pleasing memories of early 
years. The quick eye of maternal tenderness readily dis- 
cerned the furrowed traces of the ceaseless and wearing 
responsibilities that had for years been the burthen of his 
thoughts, and in the unforgotten tones, and with the 
simple affectionateness of other days, Mrs. Washington 
immediately and earnestly adverted to the subject of her 
son's health. 

At length, turning the conversation to scenes and themes 
hallowed to each by the most cherished remembrances, 
these devotedly attached and happily re-united mother and 
son talked long of mutual friends and former times. But to 
the peerless fame of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies 
of America there was not the most remote allusion I 

If there be pure and perfect joy upon earth, it is that 
which fills the heart of a parent when hearing of the wisdom, 
the virtue, and the prosperity of a darling child. How 
great a share fell to the lot of Mary Washington ! If there 
be sorrow which admits not of consolation, it is the sorrow 
of a father for the vice or folly of an ungracious, thankless 
son, and for the misery into which he has plunged himself. 
The patriarch Jacob felt both these in the extreme. It was 
her happy lot to experience only the happy contrast. 

We may rest assured that as the immortal Saviour OF 
HIS Country gazed upon the beloved and expressive 
countenance of his mother turned approvingly and affec- 
tionately upon him, his happiness was unalloyed and 
exalted as earth can bestow. 

The unexpected arrival of WASHINGTON and his suite 

U 2 



i 4 8 WASHINGTON AND SUITE AT FREDERICKSBURG. 

created the most enthusiastic delight among the citizens of 
Fredericksburg. Not only the inhabitants of the town, but 
numbers of gentlemen from its vicinity hastened to welcome 
the deliverers of their country with every demonstration of 
respect and hospitality ; happiness irradiated every face, 
and all were soon engrossed by eager preparations for 
festive pleasure. It was determined to celebrate the joyful 
occasion by a splendid ball. Mrs. WASHINGTON received 
a special invitation. She answered that, " although her 
dancing days were pretty well over, she should feel happy 
in contributing to the general festivity." The company 
assembled at a much earlier hour than modern fashion 
would sanction. Gay belles and dignified matrons graced 
the occasion arrayed in rich laces and bright brocades, — 
the well-preserved relics of scenes when neither national 
misfortune nor private calamity forbade their use. 

Numerous foreign officers were present, in the brilliant 
uniforms of their respective corps, glittering with the 
dazzling insignia of royal favour and successful courage. 
Thither came veteran heroes, the blessed and honoured of 
after times, whose war-scathed visages bespoke the un- 
flinching bravery and persevering devotion with which they 
had served their country through long years of hardship and 
danger. There, too, now swayed only by the light breath 
of pleasure, waved in billowy folds the dear-won banners 
of the " tented field." Music poured its spirit-stirring 
strains upon the soldier's ear, not to summon him to deeds 
of arms ; but by its gentler influences to inspire the chivalrous 
gallantly that well became the hour, — the gleesome jest, 
the merry iaugh, 

" Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles ! " 

But despite the soul-soothing charm of music, the 
fascinations of female loveliness, and the flattering devo- 



MARY AND HER SONS OBJECTS OF ADMIRATION. 149 



tion of the gallant brave, all was eager suspense anb 
expectation, until there entered, unannounced and un- 
attended, the Mother of Washington, leaning on the 
arm of her Son. Was there ever more thrilling scene 
than this majestic man and woman on this more than 
eventful occasion ? 

Hushed was each noisy tone, subdued each whispered 
word, as with quiet dignity and unaffected grace they 
slowly advanced. Nature had stamped upon the brow of 
both the unmistakable signet of nobility, and 

' The vision and the faculty divine " 

spoke in the imposing countenance of each, and directed 
every movement of the majestic pair. 

All hastened to approach the august presence ; the 
European officers to be presented to the parent of their 
beloved commander, and old friends, neighbours, and 
acquaintances to tender the compliments and congratula- 
tions appropriate to the occasion. 

Mrs. Washington received these peculiar demonstrations 
of respect and friendship with perfect self-possession and 
unassuming courtesy. She wore the simple, but becoming 
and appropriate costume of the Virginia ladies of the olden 
time, and even 

" The cynosure of beauty's sheen " 

was for a time forgotten, while all eyes and all hearts were 
irresistibly attracted by the winning address and unpre- 
tending appearance of the venerable lady. 

The European strangers gazed long in wondering amaze- 
ment upon this sublime and touching spectacle. Accus- 
tomed to the meretricious display of European courts, they 
regarded with astonishment her unadorned attire, and the 
mingled simplicity and majesty for which the language and 



iSo MARY ENTREATED TO RESIDE WITH HER SON 

manners of the Mother of Washington were so 
remarkable. 

Having for some time regarded with serene benignity 
the brilliant and festive scene which she had so amiably- 
consented to honour by her presence, Mrs. Washington 
expressed the cordial hope that the happiness of all might 
continue undiminished until the hour of general separation 
should arrive, and quietly adding that " it was time for old 
people to be at home," retired as she had entered, leaning 
on the arm of the Commander-in-Chief. 

It will interest to know that the immortal WASHINGTON 
danced on this occasion for the last time ; in the stately 
minuet, so well adapted to the advantageous display of his 
graceful air, and elegant and imposing form. He is also 
described as having been inspired with great cheerfulness 
and animation, while thus momentarily courting the aerial 
graces. His mother took part in a minuet with all her 
grace of earlier years. The French gentlemen present 
declared that Paris itself could boast nothing more perfect 
than the dancing of the fair and the gallant Americans 
assembled at this celebrated ball. 

Re-established at Mount Vernon, it was the earnest 
desire of Washington that his mother should thenceforth 
reside under his roof. He had frequently before urged the 
same request, and his sister (Mrs. Fletcher Lewis, of 
Fredericksburg, the only sister of Washington, whom she 
so closely resembled, that when she was arrayed in his 
usual head-dress, her features were undistinguishable from 
his), who was always most assiduous in fulfilling the duties 
imposed by nature and affection, had repeatedly endea- 
voured to persuade her aged parent to live apart from her 
no longer. But the venerable matron, notwithstanding the 
affectionate entreaties of her children, continued to conduct 
a separate establishment, with the same indefatigable in- 






DESIRES TO CONTINUE HER INDEPENDENT HOME. 151 

dustry and judicious management which she had earlier 
exhibited. She still obeyed — 

" The breezy call of incense-breathing morn " 

with as much alacrity as of yore, and still gave her attention 
to the most minute details of domestic affairs. 

In this tranquil retreat she long continued to receive 
the frequent and fondly-respectful visits of her many old 
and attached friends, as well as of her children, 3 and her 
children's children, blest in her happy and honoured age 
by the soothing consciousness of a virtuous and well-spent 
life. 

To the urgent and oft-repeated requests of her children, 
that she would make with them the home of her age, Mrs. 
Washington replied, — 

" I thank you for your dutiful and affectionate offers, but 
my wants are few in this life, and I feel perfectly competent 
to take care of myself." And when her son-in-law, Colonel 
Lewis, proposed to her to assume the general superinten- 
dence of her affairs, she resolutely answered, — 

" Do you, Fielding, keep my books in order, for your 
eyesight is better than mine, but leave the executive 
management to me." 

Mary Washington's practical sense was the seat of her 
mental power; her sound judgment judged safely upon all 

3 We find many proofs in the published correspondence of Washington, 
of the affectionate devotion with which he paid this tribute of respect to 
his mother. Thus he assigns his absence on a visit to her as a reason for 
not previously replying to a letter from the Secretary of Congress ; and 
afterwards again, in a letter to Major-General Knox, he offers the same 
explanation of a similar delay. When his mother was ill, we perceive that he 
pleads this honourable errand without reserve, as presenting claims superior 
to any public obligation. In an epistle written towards the close of the 
year 1 788, there are allusions to a prolonged sojourn under the maternal 
roof, &c, &c. 



i 5 2 HER MANNER OF LIFE IN ADVANCED AGE. 

subjects to the extent of her knowledge ; and her knowledge 
upon all practical subjects pertaining to the duties of a true 
mother was extensive. Her matronly dignity of manner 
was very marked, and she commanded universal respect 
by universally respecting her commands. 

Mrs. Washington lived an advanced and abstemious life, 
and she lived thus long, too, mainly because she lived upon 
the bounties of temperance. She aspired to the wealth of 
goodness rather than of gold, and to the fame of great 
sense rather than great station ; she attained both, retained 
both, and enjoyed both until death. She drew forth the 
love of friends, and her company was as widely sought for 
as her character was widely imitated ; her individual 
attractiveness in society was great ; she is described unlike 
what most women are, yet just what all women should have 
been. She enjoyed more than most, because she was a 
lady in all her enjoyments, and in all things the lines of 
prudence were to her precious as life. Her life should be 
read to be followed, and followed because it leads aright. 
Mrs. Washington was slow to adopt inadaptive customs, 
she preferred taste to style, or rather the style of true taste, 
comfortable dress, though fashion denounced the device, and 
convenience art to what was artfully common. Her sim- 
plicity of life, like its lasting solidity, was attained by simple 
observation and solid reflection. What she thought was 
thought with sincerity, and her every thought was truth ; 
what she said was said with sensibleness, and her every 
saying was sacred ; what she did was done in simplicity, 
and her every deed was a duty. 

Mrs. Washington's home happiness was great ; she there 
superintended a family, which has since become more 
famous than faulty sovereigns; she there likewise gave 
birth to a child, which has given birth to a republic. Her 
connubial, like her maternal love was constant ; she had 



HER CHARACTERISTICS IN OLD AGE. 



153 



been careful in bestowing her affections, yet when bestowed 
her bliss was to cultivate the soil in which she had planted 
the purest seed of her soul. Her kindness of spirit towards 
her kindred and race was less the spirit of passion than that 
of supreme sense. She possessed that virtue of virtues, a 
practical system in everything she performed, from the 
earliest to the latest years of her life. Remarkable for 
possessing so numerous and such vitally important cha- 
racteristics, she added yet that of a felicitating cheerfulness. 
She drew largely upon the future for her present happi- 
ness. If she could not at first succeed in her designs, she 
struggled designedly on until she succeeded, at least in 
seeing a way worthy her striving. She hoped for the best 
in all things, even though in most things she should enjoy, 
at the best, only her hopes. She exhibited the possession 
of the faculty of firmness to an extraordinary degree for 
her sex. 

Mrs. Washington was gifted with an energy of thought 
and action, becomingly befitting the American matron, her 
motives were exalted, exalting, too, the ideas of all within 
her influence ; her servants obeyed her bidding energetically 
because her energy served to transfuse through them the 
spirit of their chieftess ; she never feared the storms of 
natural fatigues and death, but she wisely secluded herself 
from the booming blasts of unnatural sorrows and an early 
death. She prayed for length of life, not because she 
feared death, but from fear that death would seize her 
before she had accomplished life's delightful works. 

Mrs ; Washington's age was passed in recalling, with 
unwearied pleasure, the uncommon events of her past 
eventful existence with a goblet filled with the steel-bright 
and life-blessing waters of death before her, and a cluster 
of long-ripening Christian deeds behind her, and looking 
upward beheld a better life. 



i54 LA FAYETTE'S VISIT TO MARY WASHINGTON. 

Previous to his departure for France, after the termina- 
tion of the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de La Fayette 
visited Fredericksburg expressly for the purpose of making 
his personal adieus to the mother of his beloved hero-friend 
and that he might solemnly invoke her blessing. This 
amiable visitor, who had frequently before enjoyed the 
happiness of conversing with her, repaired to the unobtru- 
sive abode of Mrs. Washington, accompanied by one of her 
grandsons. As they approached the house they observed 
an aged lady working in the adjoining garden. The 
materials composing her dress were of home-manufacture, 
and she wore over her time-silvered hair a plain straw 
bonnet. "There, sir," said the younger gentleman, "is my 
grandmother." 

Mrs. Washington received her distinguished guest with 
great cordiality, and with her usual frank simplicity of 
address. 

" Ah, Marquis ! " she exclaimed, " you see an old woman. 
But come, I can make you welcome to my poor dwelling, 
without the parade of changing my dress." 

The conversation of this interesting group soon turned, 
as was most natural, upon the brightening prospects of the 
young Republic. 

The marquis spoke of the deep interest he cherished in 
all that related to the prosperity of the land of his adoption, 
and poured forth the fond and glowing encomiums of a full 
heart at each allusion to his former Chief — his friend, his 
Mentor, his " hero." 

To the praises thus enthusiastically lavished upon her 
son by the noble Frenchman, his hostess only replied, " / 
am not surprised at what George has done, for he was 
always a good boy." 

Thus did the true greatness of this extraordinary woman 
often manifest itself. It was her pleasure frequently to 



DESIRE TO LIVE IN HER SON'S REMEMBRANCE. 155 



revert to the early days of her august son, and to express 
her approbation of his dutiful and upright conduct ; but she 
never appeared in the slightest degree elated by the honours 
that were showered " thick and fast " upon his glorious 
name. With unaffected piety she referred each and every 
occurrence of life to the great First Cause, and when the 
notes of jubilant praise swelled high, even above the din of 
battle and the wailings of a nation's despair, it was her 
earnest maternal aspiration that the "good boy " of her 
early care might never " forget himself 7" 

Mrs. Washington was always remarkable for that un- 
equivocal proof of superiority, the powerful influence she 
exerted over the minds of others. Her ideas of the respect 
due to her as a parent remained unchanged either by the 
lapse of time, or by the development of mighty events with 
which her wonderful son was so closely identified. Ever 
his trusted counsellor and friend, to her he was always the 
same in relative position. To her he owed his existence • 
to her the early discipline of his extraordinary intellect, and 
of his high moral nature ; and to her he was indebted for 
the sage advice and prudent guidance of maturer years. 

Nor did her son manifest the slightest dissent from this 
sentiment. His adopted grandson tells us that " to the last 
moments of his venerable parent he yielded to her will the 
most implicit obedience and felt for her person and character 
the highest respect and the most enthusiastic attachment." 
Perhaps the life of this celebrated lady afforded no more 
convincing proof of the genuine nobleness of her character 
than was evinced by the constancy with which she main- 
tained the peculiar sentiments and principles of her youth. 
We may believe that a mind less perfectly balanced would 
have rendered, at least, an unconscious homage to the 
power of circumstances so novel and so imposing as those 
in which she was placed. 

X 2 



156 WASHINGTON'S LAST VISIT TO HIS MOTHER. 

It was Mrs. Washington's habit, during the latter years 
of her life, to repair daily to a secluded spot near her 
dwelling, formed by overhanging rocks and trees. There, 
isolated from worldly thoughts and objects, she sought in 
devout prayer and meditation, most appropriate preparation 
for the great change which she was admonished by her 
advanced age might nearly await her. 

But one of the many weaknesses that usually characterize 
humanity was manifested by this heroic woman. Upon the 
approach of a thunderstorm she invariably retired to her 
own apartment and remained there until calmness was 
restored to the elements. This almost constitutional 
timidity was occasioned by a singularly distressing incident 
of her youth — the instant death, from the effects of light- 
ning, of a young friend, who was, at the moment when the 
accident occurred, sitting close beside her. 

Before Washington's departure for the seat of govern- 
ment, to assume the duties of President of the United 
States, he went to Fredericksburg to pay his parting 
respects to his aged mother. Her health had become so 
infirm as to impress her with the conviction that she beheld 
for the last time the crowning blessing of her declining age. 

Forgetting all else in the same mournful belief, the calm 
self-possession that no calamity had for years been able to 
shake, yielded to the claims of nature, and, overpowered by 
painful emotion, the mighty chieftain wept long, with bowed 
head, over the wasted form of his revered and much-loved 
parent. 

Sustained, even in this trying hour, by her native strength 
of mind, the heroic mother fervently invoked the blessing 
of Heaven upon her sorrowing son, and solemnly bestowing 
her own, bade him pursue the path in which public duty 
summoned him to depart. 

Mrs. Washington retained unimpaired possession of her 



HER ENDURANCE OF PHYSICAL SUFFERING IN AGE. 157 

mental faculties to her latest moments, but during the last 
three years of her life her physical powers were much 
diminished by the effects of a distressing malady with which 
she was long afflicted. 

This most painful of all diseases, cancer in the breast, 
terminated her earthly existence in her eighty-third year. 
Her death occurred on the 25th of August, 1789. She 
had been forty-six years a widow. 

A favourite lesson inculcated by Mary Washington in 
her children's minds, was the right use of money. She 
would tell them that of all the evil propensities to which 
human nature is subject, none is so general, so insinuating, 
so corruptive, and so obstinate as the love of money. It 
begins to operate early, and it continues to the end of life. 
One of the first lessons which children learn, and one which 
old men never forget, is the value of money. Of all 
passions it is best able to justify itself by reason, and is the 
last to yield to the force of reason. " Ambition and pride," 
she would say, "those powerful motives of human conduct, 
are but ministering servants to avarice. Age, which blunts 
all our other appetites, only whets this; and after the 
heart is dead to every other joy, it lives to the dear, the 
inextinguishable delight of saving and hoarding. Philo- 
sophy combats, satire exposes, religion condemns it in vain .- 
it yields neither to argument, nor to ridicule, nor to con- 
science. Like the lean kine in Pharaoh's house, it devours 
all that comes near it, and yet continues as hungry and 
meagre as ever." 

We listen with peculiar attention to those lips which are 
to speak to us no more, and the man and the words which 
we neglected while there was a prospect of their continuing 
longer with us we prize, we cleave to, and wish to retain 
when they are about to be taken away from us. We dis- 
cover the value of nothing until we are threatened with or 



158 A LIFE OF MANY INCIDENTS, ONE OF SORE DISTRESS. 



feel the want of it, and we awake to a sense of the happi- 
ness which we have possessed by the bitter reflection that 
it is gone from us for ever. 

It is well to trace important events up to their sources, to 
mark the gradual progress of human affairs ; to observe the 
same persons at different periods of their existence and in 
different situations ; to discover on what delicate hinges 
their fortunes have turned ; and to see the goodness of God 
improving the effects from the slightest and most unlikely 
causes. When revolutions in private families and in empires 
are pursued up to the springs from whence they flow, they 
are often found to commence in some little error, inadver- 
tency or folly, which at the time might have been despised 
or neglected ! just as mighty rivers begin their course in 
some paltry obscure stream which the peasant could dry up 
with the sole of his foot. The past is infinitely less per- 
spicuous to the eye of human understanding than the future 
is to divine intelligence ; God " seeth the end from the 
beginning, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will fulfil 
all My pleasure." The periods which make the most bril- 
liant figure in the page of history were periods of anxiety 
and trouble to the men and the nations who then figured on 
the scene. A life of many incidents, we may be assured, 
is a life of much distress. When the writer has got a great 
deal to relate, the person whose life is recorded has had a 
great deal to suffer. 

We have only to read the words of King Lemuel, the 
prophecy which his mother taught him, Proverbs xxxi. i — 9, 
and judge how a mother may be an useful " help " in in- 
structing a son, a grown son, and that son a prince. The 
mother's influence over the child, as it begins earlier, so 
it is of much longer duration than the father's. In 
Washington's case the father had been removed at such 
early period as to have caused the loss of all remem- 



WASHINGTON'S SUBMISSION TO HIS MOTHER. 159 

brance of him, and he had, as it were, double parentage in 
his mother. How general is it that a son, as he becomes 
a man, or approaching that state, feels uneasy under the 
restraint of paternal austerity ; he longs to shake the yoke 
from off his neck ; he pants for independence — he must 
obtain it. 

George Washington never felt his mother's yoke galling, 
or longed for emancipation from the silken fetters in which 
her gentle fingers had entangled his soul. He submitted 
himself even in the choice of a profession. His early desire 
was to have entered the navy ; her own views inclined other- 
wise ; no reasons ever passed between mother and son 
beyond the expression that it should be otherwise. What 
an example for the youth, not only of America, but of the 
world ! In the perfection of understanding, in the plenitude 
of power, in the self-gratulation of independence, to her 
milder reason he submits, her unassuming sway he readily 
acknowledges, and, independent on all things else, he feels 
that he cannot do without the smiles of maternal approba- 
tion, the admonitions of maternal solicitude, the reproofs 
of maternal tenderness and integrity. 

The highest pleasure experienced by the writer of these 
memorials is in having been the instrument, however un- 
worthy, in laying before the world such information regarding 
Mary Washington as shall for ever remove the wrong im- 
pressions resulting from erroneous statements of American 
biographers that " little is known regarding her." Among 
the Cary^apers has been found a copy of what is designated 
through a memorandum docketing them, as the " Religious 
thoughts and experiences of Mary Washington, given to 
her son George, and which, in an hour of thankfulness to 
the Almighty for the nation's deliverance from great peril, is 
transmitted to Robert Cary as a thank-offering for earnest, 
cordial help." 



160 LETTER TO SON AFTER SURRENDER OFCORNWALLIS. 



No further explanation is traceable, nor indeed in the 
mind of the writer is any needed, regarding these fervent, 
heartfelt expressions, sought by an earnestly religious 
mother to be impressed on her son. 

The early loss of husband and children was a trial such 
as poor frail humanity could not have borne without the 
special grace of God the Comforter. True it is that our 
greatest griefs spring from our holiest and best joys. God 
bestowed on Mary Washington the highest of all earthly 
good things, in her family affections. Her, as her son's, 
highest pleasures were found in duty. Let none who read 
these her " thoughts and experiences " deem her other than 
the wonderfully cheerful spirit she in truth was. To her all 
life was happy, and one marked feature in her beautiful 
character was that she thoroughly enjoyed life, largely 
traceable to her having found enjoyment in every duty 
which she had to perform. Let none henceforth say of this 
grand woman (whose personal charms, through Middleton's 
portrait, this volume is privileged to present to the world) 
that " little is known of her." It may more truthfully be 
said, " Of whom know we so much ? " 

Sent to George Washington by his mother after the 
surrender of Lord Cornwallis : — 

" Truly does this event proclaim that the Great Sovereign 
of heaven and earth governs the world. There are no 
accidents of fortune. Things are not left to the wills of 
men, to blind chance, to their own contingency, but are all 
inspected, guided, and ordered by Him. He is still the 
same, and will order all things well. No snares, intrigues, 
or difficulties puzzle or prevent the ways and purposes of 
God. Whatsoever contrivances and confusions be amongst 
men, He still keeps His throne, never lets loose the reins of 
His government of the world, though the instruments of 
His over-ruling power may be guilty of violence and 



RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS OF MARY WASHINGTON. 161 

injustice. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and 
violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, 
marvel not at the matter, for He that is higher than the 
highest, regardeth ; and there be higher than they. The 
tragical rents and revolutions of states and kingdoms, 
the disappointment of councils, the defeats of armies long 
flushed with success, the dissolving of majesty, the pulling 
asunder the thrones of mighty empires, the numerous 
accidents and traverses of human life, — all depend upon the 
disposing will and pleasure of God. 

They who continually make God their defence, that trust 
to His protection, rely and cast themselves upon Him for 
safety, shall find Him a sure safeguard : they are His par- 
ticular care and charge, under His special providence and 
defence, secure from all hurt and danger : he that dwelleth 
in the secret places of the Most High, shall abide under 
the shadow of the Almighty. He shall cover thee with 
His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. He 
loves us better than we love ourselves, and better knows 
what is fit for our interest, our universal welfare, which is 
lodged more intimately in His heart than it can be in ours. 
Although our sins deserve Thy wrath, and nothing that we 
can do deserves Thy favour, yet godliness hath the promise of 
the life which is to come. It was Thy errand into the world 
to save us from perishing. Thou art effectively the Saviour 
of the body. And shall we not trust Thee in what Thou 
hast undertaken, who trust man if we judge him faithful ?" 

In an hour of national despondency his mother had sent 
him the following : — 

" O Merciful Saviour, how have I been blessed by Thee 
in the enjoyment of calmness and resignation during times 
of trouble and perplexity, arising through the prospects and 
prognostics of approaching miseries ; when men's hearts 
were failing them for fear, and for looking after those 



i62 RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS 

things they feared to be coming upon them. Thou gavest 
me inward peace and rest, which they can never possess, 
who entertain evil tidings with dismayed minds, and have 
nothing to trust to, or rest upon, but what may be damaged 
or taken from them. Fear of future trouble is the great 
disturber of human life, molests our quiet hours with dismal 
apprehensions; prevents not, nor eases, an expected 
calamity ; torments us before it comes, more than the 
calamity itself." 

" External comforts or crosses should make little accession 
to, or diminution from the satisfaction and serenity of our 
spirits. It is far better not to need, to be above, than to 
enjoy abundance. All is well so long as it is well •within. 
WhenSimeon had the Infant Saviour in his arms, and Zaccheus 
Christ in his house, how little were they taken with, or con- 
cerned for, other things. It is not abundance men need, but 
satisfied minds. For wealth, none are nearer happiness 
nor further from the grave. J In the twinkling of an eye all 
are turned out of the world, as naked as they came into it. 
A few fleet moments make but a little difference. God is 
too just to do us wrong, too good to do us hurt, and too 
wise not to know what will do us good or hurt." 

"O merciful Saviour, comfort the hearts of all whom 
Thou honourest to suffer for their country's sake in these 
days of peril and uncertainty. Open our hearts to share 
their sorrows, and be it our privilege to make sacrifices for 
their sakes. Considering our great examples of suffering 
and patience, how can we be impatient sufferers? Who 
can be troubled at want, that worships a God willing to live 
and die in sorrow ? Undervalued, traduced, envied, re- 
proached, betrayed, abandoned, put to death by His country, 
men. His tribute paid by a fish; His triumphs solemnized 
by another age's colt ; born among beasts, lived among 
publicans, died among thieves ; His birth without a cradle ; 



OF MARY WASHINGTON. 



'63 



His burial without a rag or grave of His own ; and the price 
of His blood buys a burial-place for strangers. Why 
wouldst Thou be thus homely, but that by contemning 
worldly glory, Thou mightest teach us to do so, and 
sanctify poverty unto them, whom Thou callest unto want; 
since Thou, who hadst the choice of all earthly conditions, 
wouldst be born poor, and live despised ? Who can 
murmur and repine under the harshest usages, that con- 
siders Thou (who knew all from the beginning) chosedst 
uncivil men to crowd Thee with the horse and the ass in a 
public stable ; to have contempt thrown upon Thy poverty ? 
He that hath many mansions for others in His Father's 
house hath no privacy in an inn, and complains not, repines 
not at it. He that would have given his churlish host an 
eternal house in heaven for the asking for, could not have 
the least part of his here, because his parents seem poor. 
Oh, ye suffering ones in this world, none will have cause to 
complain of coarse robes, hard bed, thin table, who call to 
mind how it was with the Great King ! Let us try to 
realize that those idols of the world's esteem (riches and 
honour) are so far from making us truly happy, they cannot 
even be numbered among good things." 

" We must not expect that all God's Providence in govern- 
ing the world should centre in our particular conveniency 
and happiness! Human events and several persons' 
interests are so interwoven by Him that they have a mutual 
dependence among themselves ; and their meetings, which 
we think casual, are twice necessary, as His decree, and for 
many ends. We must consider ourselves as pieces of the 
universe, and engines which that great work, man, sets 
going for executing His ends ; which being all good, all 
means tending to them must be so also. We must 
therefore bear our crosses, not only with patience, but joy 
and thankfulness, as accounting ourselves happy we are 

Y 2 



1 64 RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS 

instruments in His hand to do His work and advance His 
glory; which must needs please Him, doing that willingly 
which others do out of constraint. How great an evil is 
discontent with our allotment ! By desiring to have our 
will in such a particular, we should perhaps cross God 
in a thousand He hath to bring about ; because it is 
possible a thousand things may depend upon that one thing 
we would have to be otherwise than it is. I will be 
henceforth willing to be crossed in some few things, that 
His work may go on in all, and His end attained or 
furthered in many things by the one thing I am crossed in." 

" We forget that we are all servants to the same Master, 
who disposes all the concerns of men by an unerring 
wisdom, and is alone to determine the place we shall serve 
Him in. We think that Providence, which governs others, 
should only serve us ; and distribute to us not what it, but 
ourselves think good. The common Father of mankind 
disposes things for the public advantage of this great 
family ; and there cannot be a greater contempt of His 
wisdom than to dispute His choice. Men look upon them- 
selves as single persons, without reference to the community 
whereof they are members. God hath placed none of us in 
so barren a soil, so forlorn a state, but there is something 
in it which may afford us comfort ; if we husband that to 
the utmost, it is scarce imaginable what improvement even 
he that appears the most miserable may make of his 
condition." 

•' This world is a state of probation, we live in it on no 
other terms than to be liable to all the hazards and troubles, 
changes and vicissitudes that attend mortality. Vanity 
and vexation are the essence of all earthly things, incor- 
porated into the mass of this visible creation. /;/ the world 
we shall have tribulation, the ordinary lot of all those, the 
Captain of whose salvation was made perfect through 



OF MARY WASHINGTON. 165 



sufferings. To be offended at them, is to be offended that 
we are men or Christians. If you be without chastisement, 
whereof all are partakers, then you are not sons. It is the 
character and brand of the wicked that they are not in 
trouble as other men. Every true Israelite expects his 
father Jacob's legacy. The archers have sorely grieved 
him, and shot at him and hated him. And to find his 
days as his, not only few but evil. Heaven's highest 
favourites have no work of privilege, but the unspeakable 
advantage of making them easy and useful by considerate, 
submissive, contented minds. Patience lessens pain and 
suffering ; trouble aggravates every sad accident ; content- 
ment makes it none at all. If we will, it cannot harm us ; 
if we give way to it we wound ourselves, and join with it to 
make us miserable, and a single mischief a great many ; 
but if we quietly sit still, and in patience possess our souls, 
we are what we were before the evil came, only our souls 
have the addition of the greatest joy and pleasure by the 
victory we have obtained over it and ourselves. The 
greatest of our misfortunes is our impatience. Discontent 
is worse than any evil we feel ; contentment is better than 
any comfort we want or desire. How pleasant is it to a 
Christian to find himself willing to be without that which 
he most desired ; and to suffer that to which he was most 
averse, far sweeter than the obtaining and enjoying of that 
he longed for." 

" Impatience is our greatest misery. He that is ever 
content with what he is, makes himself happy without a 
fortune, and when others judge him most unfortunate. 
While we neglect our duty, we cannot but be troublesome 
to ourselves ; while we secure that, we cannot be much dis- 
tressed in any calamity. This, were there nothing else, is 
abundantly sufficient to recommend and endear religion to 
us ; that the sincere observance of it not only prevents 



1 66 RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS 

many troubles, but affords support under all. We can 
justly complain of nothing that separates us not from the 
love of God, who is perpetually concerned for human affairs, 
and particularly intends their happiness who place it only in 
Him. In a turbulent world, in unsettled times, amidst the 
straits and difficulties we are liable to pass through, 
nothing can be more desirable than to be above misfortunes, 
to be free from molestation and anxious thoughts, to meet 
all vicissitudes and events with constant equal tempers, to 
undergo all crosses with becoming, contented minds, to 
entertain the harshest accidents with equanimity and acqui- 
escence of soul, wholly submitted unto, and fully satisfied 
with, the divine disposal." 

" How great an impostor is this world unto us ! In the 
diversity of reports and opinions, in the eager pursuit of 
worldly greatness, in the hungry hunt after carnal pleasures, 
in the heats of passion, in the cries of the poor, in the 
oppression of the rich, in the throng of business, in the 
remission of idleness, in the diversion of friends, in the spite 
of enemies, in the hopes and fears, joys and sorrows of this 
evil world, how few find rest and content ! How great is 
the excellency of divine contentment ! How necessary and 
profitable, pleasant and comfortable, beautiful and amiable ; 
how it makes us rich and happy, in despite of the world ; 
fits us to do and receive good ! " 

" This world hath six parts of our time allowed her by God, 
yet still cries, ' Give, give : how violently hath she urged 
me to encroach on the Sabbath by sitting too late the night 
before, or rising too early on the day after!' Alas, my 
soul ! is this world six times more precious than Jesus, than 
Jehovah, that I should rob Him of His seventh part of my 
time for her sake? Blessed Redeemer, come up higher in 
my heart, and ye worldly concerns, get you down, and sit 
below His footstool. Lord, why should earthly cares trouble 



OF MAR Y WASHING TON. 1 6 7 



me on Thy day. Vain thoughts are sin's advocates and Thy 
adversaries. O, forgive their wickedness : and as fire melts 
away, so let them perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. 
How long shall vain thoughts lodge within me ? How 
long shall the august, the everlasting state of things be to 
my soul as a dark shadow, as the image of a dream. On 
this sacred morning why do I not live as just entering into 
eternity ? as if beholding the glorious appearance of the 
great God my Saviour ? Are not eternal things as certain 
now as they will be hereafter ? Why then live I not 
alway in the believing view, and under the deep impres- 
sion of the heavens vanishing, the elements melting, the 
earth flaming, the angels everywhere dispersed, to gather 
the elect from the four winds of heaven, and of their 
ascending to meet the Lord in the air, and be for ever 
with Him ! What a trifle will the pleasures, honour, or 
wealth of this world — nay, of a thousand worlds — be to 
me then." 

" Reason informs me that men being made for eternity, 
their time should be partly sequestrated to the contem- 
plation of eternal things ; that, being of a social nature, 
they ought to associate in their principal business the 
worship of their God ; and that to avoid distraction, it is 
proper there should be one fixed season of public devotion 
common to all. What a mercy for man is the Sabbath! 
What weary pilgrims, wandering in pathless deserts, were 
we but for this pledge of immortality, whereon from inex- 
hausted stores God pours down His spiritual blessings on 
us, and whereon we sit basking in the rays of His counte- 
nance, forget things below, and with angels and saints 
converse with Him, are warmed with love to Him, live on 
Him, and in Him, and express our joy in songs of grateful 
praise ! But how transcendent their felicity who celebrate 
the everlasting Sabbath above ! who, being far removed 



1 68 RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS OF MARY WASHINGTON. 

from weariness and pain, and rid of every evil thought, 
enjoy God and the Lamb to the utmost strength of their 
boundless wishes." 

" Awake, my soul, the wings of the morning have begun 
their rapid course ; the early sun, the warbling birds sing 
their Creator's praise. Almighty Father, all things Thy 
name resound, Thou Eternal Cause, Supporter, End of All, 
wake up my soul, and join the choir : thy Maker's praise 
proclaim. But soft ! a Maker's praise is not the half thou 
owest. Praise thy Redeemer — praise. On this blessed 
day thy Jesus rose — rose early for thy good. On this 
great day He finished the purchase of thy bliss ; then 
early burst the bonds of death. Wake, wake my soul, 
praise thy righteous, thy risen, thy exalted Lord ! " 

" When—mie gave up ourselves to Thee, Thou becamest 
ours ; and we did it on that condition, that Thou shouldest 
receive and save us. I expect, O my Saviour, but the 
performance of Thy covenant, and the discharge of Thy 
undertaken office. As Thou hast caused me to believe in 
Thee, to love Thee, to serve Thee, to perform the condition 
Thou hast laid upon me, though with many sinful failings, 
which Thou hast pardoned, so now Thou wilt let my soul, 
which hath trusted in Thee, have the full experience of Thy 
fidelity ; and take me to Thyself, according to Thy 
covenant, and remember the word unto Thy servant, upon 
which Thou hast caused me to hope. How many promises 
hast Thou left us, that we shall not be forsaken by Thee, 
but that we shall be with Thee where Thou art, that we may 
behold Thy glory." 

No mention is made in the Cary papers as to any occa- 
sions of these meditations of Mary Washington, beyond 
those called forth by Lord Cornwallis' surrender. 




THE DAUGHTER OF PATRICK HEKRY, 

The Great Scuthern Oral 



Reproduced by the Antotypt Company, London. From the original Oil Painting by lames i ' 




CHAPTER X. 

Washington's distrust of the French Revolution — His personal sacrifices during 
his terms of Presidency, 1789 to 1796 — Imminent danger of the country 
during his second Presidency — Avails of the horrors excited by the French 
Revolution for praiseworthy purposes — Sharpies' devotion to Washington — 
Washington's genius evidenced in his conduct at time of the Declaration 
of Independence, retrieves the desperate condition of the country's affairs — 
The intrigues of Genet — Washington's message of December, 1793, on the 
country's foreign relations — Great excitement everywhere — Washington 
dignified and unswerving— Robert Cary tracks the designs and doings 
of Genet and other enemies in America — Pinckney's despatches make 
known England's desire for peace — Cary's great love and devotion to 
Washington. 

Sharples names how deeply his heart had entered into 
the intense anxieties through which the great Chief had 
passed during his chief magistracy, events which had con- 
vulsed the whole political world, and which had tried most 
severely his moderation and prudence. The French Revo- 
lution had taken place. Sharpies had- learned from 
Washington that from the beginning of that revolution he 
had no great confidence in its beneficial operation. He 
must have desired the abolition of despotism ; but he is not 
to be called the enemy of liberty, because he dreaded the 
substitution of a more oppressive yoke. It is more than 
probable that his wary and practical understanding, in- 
structed by the experience of popular commotions, augured 
little good from the daring speculations of inexperienced 
visionaries. The progress of the revolution was not adapted 
to cure his distrust, and when, in 1793, France, then 

z 



1 7 o WASHINGTON'S DISTRUST OF THE REVOLUTION. 

groaning under the most intolerable and hideous tyranny, 
became engaged in war with almost all the governments of 
the civilized world, it was matter of deliberation with 
Washington whether the republican envoy or the agent of 
the French princes should be received in America as the 
diplomatic representative of France. Whatever may have 
been his private feelings of repugnance and horror, his public 
conduct was influenced only by his public duties. As a vir- 
tuous man he must have abhorred the system of crimes which 
was established in France. But as the first magistrate 
of the American Commonwealth, he was bound only to 
consider how far the interest and safety of the people whom 
he governed were affected by the conduct of France. He 
saw that it was wise and necessary for America to preserve 
a good understanding and a beneficial intercourse with that 
country, in whatever manner she was governed, so long as 
she abstained from committing an injury against America. 
Guided by this just and simple principle, uninfluenced by 
the abhorrence of crimes which he felt, he received Genet, 
the minister of the French Republic, and was soon shocked 
by the outrages which that minister committed, or instigated, 
or countenanced against the American Government. The 
conduct of Washington was a model of firm and disciplined 
moderation. Insults were offered to his authority in official 
papers, in anonymous libels, by incendiary declaimers, and 
by tumultuous meetings. The law of nations was trampled 
under foot. His confidential ministers were seduced to 
betray him, and the deluded populace were so inflamed by 
the arts of enemies that they broke out into insurrection. 
No vexation, however galling, could disturb the tranquillity 
of his mind, or make him deviate from the policy which his 
situation prescribed. With a more confirmed authority, and 
at the head of a longer established government, he might 
perhaps have thought greater vigour justifiable. But in his 



HIS SACRIFICES DURING HIS PRESIDENCY. 171 



circumstances, he was sensible that the nerves of authority- 
were not strong enough to bear being strained. Persuasion, 
always the most desirable instrument of government, was in 
his case the safest ; yet he never overpassed the line which 
separates concession from meanness. He reached the 
utmost limits of moderation, without in the least beine 
betrayed into pusillanimity. He preserved external and 
interna] peace by a system of mildness, without any of those 
virtual confessions of weakness, which so much dishonour 
and enfeeble supreme authority. During the whole of that 
arduous struggle, his personal character gave that strength 
to a new magistracy which in other countries arises from 
ancient habits of obedience and respect. The authority of 
his virtue was more efficacious for the preservation of 
America than the legal powers of his office. 

It was during this turbulent period that he was re-elected 
to the office of President of the United States, which he 
held from 1 789 till September, 1 796. No magistrate of any 
commonwealth, ancient or modern, ever occupied a seat so 
painful and perilous. Certainly no man was ever called 
upon so often to sacrifice his virtuous feelings — and he had 
no other sacrifices to make — to his public duty. In the 
spring of 1794 he sent an ambassador to Paris, with creden- 
tials addressed to his "dear friends, the citizens composing 
the Committee of Public Safety of the French Republic," 
whom he prays God "to take under His holy protection." 
Fortunately, the American ambassador was spared the 
humiliation of presenting his credentials to those bloody 
tyrants. Their power was subverted, and a few of them had 
suffered the punishment of their crimes, which no punish- 
ment could expiate, before his arrival at Paris. 

Washington had another struggle of feeling and duty to 
encounter when he was compelled to suppress the insurrec- 
tion in the western counties of Pennsylvania by force of 

Z 2 



1 72 WASHINGTON'S MODERATION UNDER TRIALS. 

arms. But there he had a consolation, in the exercise of 
mercy, for the necessity of having recourse to arms. Never 
was there a revolt quelled with so little shedding of blood. 
Scarcely ever was the basest dastard so tender of his own 
life as was this virtuous man of the lives of his fellow- 
citizens. The value of his clemency is enhanced by recol- 
lecting that he was neither without provocations to severity, 
nor without pretexts for its exercise. His character and his 
office had been reviled in a manner almost unexampled 
among civilized nations. His authority had been insulted. 
His safety had been threatened. Of his personal and 
political enemies, some might, perhaps, have been suspected 
of having instigated the insurrection ; a greater number 
were thought to wish well to it ; and a very few showed 
much zeal to suppress it. But neither resentment nor fear, 
nor even policy itself, could extinguish the humanity of 
Washington. This seems to have been the only sacrifice 
which he was incapable of making to the interest of his 
country. 

Would that the enemy could show the like moderation 
under circumstances of even greater provocation, ofttimes 
endured by Washington, and which were never allowed to 
swell into revenge; — when incensed at Lisle's treachery, 
Lord Cornwallis, for instance, had recourse to most severe 
orders in return. The penalty of death was denounced 
against all militiamen who, after serving with the English, 
went off to the insurgents. Several of the prisoners in the 
battle of Camden, men taken with arms in their hands and 
with British protections in their pockets, were hanged. A 
proclamation was issued, sequestering the estates of those 
who had been the most forward to oppose the establishment 
of the royal authority within the province. These and 
even more severe measures exceeded the bounds of justice, 
certainly they did those of policy. This was shown by the 



DANGER OF COUNTRY DURING HIS PRESIDENCY. 173 

fatal event, when on the overthrow of the royalist cause in 
South Carolina, the measures of Lord Cornwallis became 
the plea for other executions, and for every act of oppression 
that resentment could devise. Within the limited sphere 
of his own command, Lord Rawdon had recourse to some 
measures still severer and far less to be justified. In a 
letter to one of his officers, which was intercepted, he wrote: 
" I will give the inhabitants ten guineas for the head of any 
deserter, belonging to the volunteers of Ireland ; and five 
guineas only, if they bring him in alive." No amount of 
provocation or of precedent in his enemies, no degree of 
youthful ardour in himself, could excuse these blamable 
words. When, however, called upon to vindicate them, 
Lord Rawdon declared that many of his threats were meant 
only " to act on the fears and prejudices of the vulgar," and 
by no means to be carried into practical effect. 

Throughout the whole course of Washington's second 
presidency, the danger of America was great and imminent 
beyond example. The spirit of change seemed to have 
shaken all nations. But in other countries it had to 
encounter ancient and solidly established power. It had to 
tear up by the roots long habits of attachment in some 
nations for their government, of awe in others, of acquies- 
cence and submission in all. But in America the Govern- 
ment was new and weak. The people had scarce time to 
recover from the ideas and feelings of a recent civil war. 
In other countries the volcanic force must be of power to 
blow up the mountains, and to convulse the continents that 
hold it down, before it could escape from the deep cavern 
in which it was imprisoned ; in America, it was covered 
only by the ashes of a late convulsion, or at most by a little 
thin soil, the produce of a few years quiet. The Govern- 
ment of America had none of those salutary prejudices to 
employ which in every other country were used with 



i 7 4 ATROCITIES USED FOR PRAISEWORTHY PURPOSES. 



success to open the eyes of the people to the enormities 
of the French Revolution. It had, on the contrary, 
to contend with the prejudices of the people in the 
most moderate precautions against internal confusion, in 
the most measured and guarded resistance to the 
unparalleled insults and enormous encroachments of 
France. Without zealous support from the people, 
the American Government was impotent. It required 
a considerable time, and it cost an arduous and dubious 
struggle, to direct the popular spirit against a sister republic, 
established among a people to whose aid the Americans 
ascribed the establishment of their independence. It is 
probable, indeed, that no policy could have produced this 
effect, unless it had been powerfully aided by the crimes 
of the French Government, which proved the strongest 
allies of all established governments ; which produced 
such a general disposition to submit to any known tyranny, 
rather than rush into all the unknown and undefinable evils 
of civil confusion, with the horrible train of new and mon- 
strous tyrannies of which it is usually the forerunner. Of 
these circumstances Washington availed himself with 
remarkable address. He used the horror excited by the 
atrocities of the French Revolution for the most honest and 
praiseworthy purposes i to preserve the internal quiet of his 
country ; to assert the dignity and to maintain the rights of 
the commonwealth which he governed against foreign 
enemies. He avoided war without incurring the charge of 
pusillanimity ; he cherished the detestation of Americans for 
anarchy without weakening the spirit of civil liberty ; and 
he maintained, and even consolidated, the authority of 
government without abridging the privileges of the people. 

Sharpies, be it rememberd, reached America at a time 
when the great Chief was suffering deeply through the 
designs of men jealous of his power, greatness, and influence. 



WASHINGTON'S RESIGNATION IN 1 796. 175 



Cary was a relied-on friend. It is seen by confidential 
correspondence that he was in the great Chief's confidence, 
and finding the newly-arrived artist commended very warmly 
by him, and that on acquaintance he proved to be an 
English gentleman of mark, and worthy of confidence, he 
opened his heart to him in a degree such as fell to but 
few. Sharpies appreciated this, proved by a letter to 
Mr. Cary, in which he wrote : — 

" I would have walked barefoot the mileage of the wide 
Atlantic Ocean for the great, the inexpressible honour, even 
of having had if it were but one sitting from him, the 
greatest of all men." 

Washington's resignation, in 1796, must have occurred 
just prior to Sharpies painting his portraits. It was, 
perhaps, a measure of prudence, but it may be doubted 
whether it was beneficial for his country in the then un- 
settled state of public affairs. In his valedictory address at 
this time, as in that given before to his countrymen on the 
occasion of quitting the command of the army, his whole 
heart and soul is laid bare. Other State papers have, 
perhaps, shown more spirit, more eloquence, greater force 
of genius, and a more enlarged comprehension of mind; 
but none ever displayed more simplicity and ingenuousness, 
more moderation and sobriety, more good sense, more 
prudence, more honesty, more earnest affection for his 
country and for mankind, more profound reverence for 
virtue and religion, more ardent wishes for the happiness 
of his fellow-creatures, and more just and rational views 
of the means which alone can effectually promote that 
happiness. 

At our now distance of time, it is possible to look dis- 
passionately at the events of the American War, so as to 
arrive at a correct judgment, such as could not have been 
the case with such momentous events during the period of 



176 DESPERATE CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY IN 1796. 

their occurrence. It may be said, generally, that within a 
very short period after the Declaration of Independence, 
the affairs of America were in a condition so desperate, that 
perhaps nothing but the peculiar character of Washington's 
genius could have retrieved them. Activity is the policy of 
invaders, and in the field of battle the superiority of a dis- 
ciplined army is displayed. But delay was the wisdom of a 
country defended by undisciplined soldiers against an enemy 
who must be more exhausted by time than he could be 
weakened by defeat. It required the consummate prudence, 
the calm wisdom, the inflexible firmness, the moderate and 
well-balanced temper of Washington, to embrace such a 
plan of policy, and to persevere in it ; to resist the temp- 
tations of enterprise ; to fix the confidence of his soldiers 
without the attraction of victory ; to support the spirit of 
the army and the people amidst those slow and cautious 
plans of defensive warfare which are more dispiriting 
than defeat itself; to contain his own ambition and the 
impetuosity of his troops ; to endure temporary obscurity 
for the salvation of his country, and for the attainment of 
solid and immortal glory ; and to suffer even temporary 
reproach and obloquy, supported by the approbation of his 
own conscience and the applause of that small number of 
wise men whose praise is an earnest of the admiration and 
gratitude of posterity. Victorious generals easily acquire 
the confidence of their army. Theirs, however, is a confi- 
dence in the fortune of their general ; that of Washington's 
army was a confidence in his wisdom. Victory gives spirit 
to cowards, and even the agitation of defeat sometimes 
imparts a courage of despair. Courage is ofttimes inspired 
by success, and it may be stimulated to desperate exertion 
even by calamity, but it is generally palsied by inactivity. 
A system of cautious defence is the severest trial of human 
fortitude. By this test the firmness of Washington was tried. 



ASSEMBLING OF DELEGATES IN PHILADELPHIA. 177 



Mount Vernon's peaceful retreat opened its welcome gate 
to its illustrious owner at the conclusion of the war; but it 
was only for a little while that he was permitted to return 
to its domestic scenes, from which nothing but a paramount 
sense of duty had the power to withdraw him. He was not 
allowed long to enjoy the blessed privacy in which the artist 
Sharpies had enjoyed his society. The Supreme Govern- 
ment of America, hastily thrown up, in a moment of tur- 
bulence and danger, as a fortification against anarchy, 
proved inadequate to the preservation of general tranquillity 
and permanent security. The confusions of civil war had 
given a taint to the morality of a portion of the people, 
which rendered the restraints of a just and vigorous govern- 
ment more indispensably necessary. Confiscation and 
paper money, two great schools of rapacity and dishonesty, 
had widely spread their poison. In this state of things, 
which threatened the dissolution of morality and govern- 
ment, good men saw the necessity of concentrating and 
invigorating the supreme authority. Under the influence of 
this conviction it was that the Convention of Delegates 
assembled at Philadelphia, which strengthened the hands of 
the federal union, and bestowed on Congress those powers 
which were necessary for the purposes of good government. 
Washington was decreed by Providence to be elected 
the President of this Convention, as he, three years after, 
was elected President of the United States of America, 
under what was called "The New Constitution ;" though it 
would have been more correctly styled a reform of the 
Republican Government, as that Republican Government 
itself was only a reform of the ancient Colonial Constitution 
under the British Crown. None of these changes extended 
so far as an attempt to new model the whole social and 
political system. 

Looking back hispassionately on the great events of that 

A a 



178 SYMPATHIES OF THE PEOPLE WITH FRANCE. 

war, it is seen that the whole efforts of Washington and his 
great ally and friend, Hamilton, in the Government, from 
the conclusion of the War in 1783, to the retirement of that 
able man from public life in 1 796, — the year during which 
the artist Sharpies saw so much of both, — were devoted to 
tempering the democratic ardour which had broken out with 
such vehemence in their country after the declaration of 
its independence, and laying the foundation of a 
lasting pacific intercourse with England. Yet so strongly 
were the sympathies of the people enlisted on the 
side of France and revolution, that it required all his 
immense popularity, and all the wisdom of his wise coun- 
sellor, Hamilton, to counteract, in 1793, the loudly expressed 
wish of the decided majority of the American citizens to 
declare war against Great Britain. So vehement was the 
clamour that on more than one occasion at that period, it 
was apparent that the federalist party, to which he belonged, 
had lost the majority in the Chamber of Representatives ; 
and such was the fury of the public journals, that he was 
openly accused of aspiring to the monarchy, and of being 
"like the traitor Arnold, a spy sold to the English." But 
the godlike Washington, unmoved, pursued steadily his 
pacific policy. 

The horrors of the French Revolution cooled the ardour 
of many of its ardent supporters in America, and one of the 
last acts of the Immortal was to carry, by his influence in 
Congress, which, as we learn on the authority of Chief 
Justice Marshall, had procured its passing there only by 
the casting vote of the President, a Commercial Treaty 
with Great Britain. 

It is only after the lapse of nearly a century, and following 
the long continuance of more amicable relations between 
the two countries, which nothing short of demoniacal 
inspiration should ever disturb, that the consummate 



PRUDENCE IN DEALING WITH FRANCE. i 79 



wisdom of Washington is realized in his successful avoid- 
ance of further collisions with the mother country. The 
intrigues of Genet, and the more than ill-advised measures 
of the English Government, had brought the neutrality so 
zealously guarded by Washington into imminent hazard. 
American seamen were being constantly, at that time, 
impressed, a wrong to which they were specially exposed 
from national similarity ; and in addition to this frequently 
occurring fretful annoyance, England persistently adhered 
to asserted rights in holding the ports to the south of the 
lakes, which, according to treaty stipulations, ought unques- 
tionably to have been given up. Washington did not feel 
himself in a position to press American rights under the 
treaty with the vigorous hand that some would urge ; 
questions having risen in some of the State courts, to 
obstruct the fulfilment of the American part of such treaty, 
which regarded the payment of British debts contracted 
before the war. In addition to these causes of anxiety, 
there had existed such a scarcity in France, consequent on 
the failure of the crops, that a famine was apprehended. 
England, availing herself of her naval ascendency, deter- 
mined, if possible, to cut off French supplies from abroad. 
In June, 1793, all British cruisers were instructed to detain 
all vessels bound to France with cargoes of corn, flour, or 
meal, take them into port, unload them, purchase the 
cargoes, make a proper allowance for the freight, and then 
release the vessels ; or to allow the masters of them, on a 
stipulated security, to dispose of their cargoes in a port in 
amity with England. The provisions laid down for obser- 
vance in carrying out this determination, though seemingly 
simple, were in practice most difficult, and eminently cal- 
culated to add to the already existing bad feeling. It is 
impossible to over-estimate the difficulties encountered by 
Washington in his efforts to avoid collision with England 

A a 2 



i So HE HOLDS HIS GROUND AGAINST ENEMIES. 

through these burning questions. A large party in the 
country advocated immediate seizure of the lake forts ; 
others urged a more determined course in regard to the 
impressment of seamen found on board American ships ; 
while there was not wanting a noisy multitude who clamoured 
for a determined stand against any meddling with the United 
States' vessels occupied in transport of provisions to any 
destination. Either one of these questions might easily 
have involved the country in war. He alone realized that 
any renewal of war at such a moment was to imperil all 
that had at such heavy cost been won. Among the many 
unworthy and pretended reasons set up by his enemies 
for his prudent and conscientious conduct in all these 
various dangerous matters, and which in no feature went 
beyond the bounds of right and strict justice, yet his action 
was cited by partisan writers as indicative of his preference 
of England to " our ancient ally, France." Despite the 
various machinations against him, the Head of the State 
held his own against all his many enemies, and his speech 
at the opening of the Congress on the 2nd December, i 793, 
closed with words impressing on members the magnitude 
of their task, the important interests confided to them, and 
the conscientiousness that should reign over their delibera- 
tions. " Without an unprejudiced coolness, the welfare of 
the Government may be hazarded ; without harmony, as far 
as consists with freedom of sentiment, its dignity may be lost. 
But, as the legislative proceedings of the United States will 
never, I trust, be reproached for the want of temper or can- 
dour, so shall not the public happiness languish from the 
want of my strenuous and warmest co-operation." 

A few days later, the 5th December, 1 793, in a message 
to both Houses concerning foreign relations, he spoke 
feelingly with regard to those with the representative and 
executive bodies of France : — 



DIGNIFIED BUT OUTSPOKEN REBUKE OF GENET. 1S1 

" It is with extreme concern I have to inform you that 
the proceedings of the person whom they have unfortunately 
appointed their minister plenipotentiary here, have breathed 
nothing of the friendly spirit of the nation which sent him ; 
their tendency, on the contrary, has been to involve us in 
war abroad, and discord and anarchy at home. So far as 
his acts, or those of his agents, have threatened our imme- 
diate commitment in the war, or flagrant insult to the 
authority of the laws, their effect has been counteracted by 
the ordinary cognizance of the laws, and by an exertion of 
the powers confided to me. Where their danger was not 
imminent, they have been borne with from sentiments of 
regard for his nation ; from a sense of firm friendship 
towards us ; from a conviction that they would not suffer us 
to remain long exposed to the action of a person who has 
so little respected our mutual dispositions ; and, I will add, 
from a reliance on the firmness of my fellow-citizens in their 
principles of peace and order." 

There was great excitement throughout America, as well 
as much questioning in France, and not a little in England, 
when this message became known. Fiery spirits in France 
pretended to see insult in its every word. Its truthfulness 
and justice were generally admitted in England. John 
Adams, speaking of it, said : " The President has given 
Genet a bolt of thunder." He questioned, however, whether 
Washington would be supported in it by the two Houses. 
" Although he stands at present as high in the admiration 
and confidence of the people as ever he did, I expect he 
will find many bitter and desperate enemies arise in con- 
sequence of his just judgment against Genet." 

The truth of Adams' remark was soon exemplified in the 
choice of Speaker being determined by a majority of ten 
against the administration, in the House of Representatives ; 
yet it was manifest from the affectionate answer on the 6th, 



182 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DOES HIM JUSTICE. 

of the two Houses, to Washington's speech, and the satis- 
faction expressed at his re-election, that he was not included 
in the opposition which, from this act, appeared to await 
his political system. The House did justice to the purity 
and patriotism of the motives which had prompted him 
again to obey the voice of his country, when called by it to 
the Presidential chair : — 

" It is to virtues which have commanded long and 
universal reverence, and services from which have flowed 
great and lasting benefits, that the tribute of praise may be 
paid, without the reproach of flattery ; and it is from the 
same sources that the fairest anticipations may be derived 
in favour of the public happiness." 

This public recognition went far to condone the insults 
under which he had suffered. Notwithstanding the popular 
ferment in favour of France, both Houses may be said to 
have approved the course observed by Washington in 
regard to that country ; and so far as his proclamation of 
neutrality went, while the House approved of it in guarded 
terms, the Senate pronounced it a " measure well-timed and 
wise ; manifesting a watchful solicitude for the welfare of 
the nation, and calculated to promote it." These were 
healthful, comforting words to a spirit sorely tried, and in a 
letter to Robert Cary he speaks of them as " all I would 
wish inflicted on my maligners." These few, but truly 
Christian words, written unreservedly to an English gentle- 
man, his trusty friend, far removed from the arena of strife, 
thoroughly exemplify his noble, forgiving spirit, and will 
pass down through time as a golden example to others 
under far less irritation and trial. 

The public rebukes administered to Genet by Washington 
bore no seeming effect. Not content with compromising 
the neutrality of the United States at sea, he attempted to 



EFFORTS OF ROBERT CARY TO AVERT WAR. 183 



endanger it on land. From documents received, it appeared 
that in November, 1 793, he had sent emissaries to Kentucky, 
to enrol American citizens in an expedition against New 
Orleans and the Spanish possessions ; furnishing them with 
blank commissions for the purpose. 1 It was an enterprise 
in which the adventurous people of that State were ready 
enough to embark, through enthusiasm for the French 
nation, and impatience at the delay of Spain to open the 
navigation of the Mississippi. Another expedition was to 
proceed against the Floridas ; men for the purpose to be 
enlisted in the South, to rendezvous in Georgia, and to be 
aided by a body of Indians and by a French fleet, should 
one arrive on the coast. 

It is not intended, or even desired, to conceal in any 
way the character of the friendship subsisting between 
Washington and Robert Cary in London. Originating in 
business acts as his agent in sale of the tobaccos grown on 
his Virginia estates, correspondence, and the occurring 
historical events attending and arising out of the separation 
of the countries, had created a bond of sympathy between 
them ; and on more than one occasion Robert Cary had 
strenuously exerted himself to bring about a friendly under- 
standing between the Governments of the old and new 
country. Cary was a man of position, of integrity, and 
weight, for he never stirred save in an upright, truthful 
cause. So great had this become, that at the time (June, 
1793) when England issued such orders to her cruisers as 
could hardly fail of mischief, the wisest men in the country 
regarded affairs as very critical. On the 6th of the 
following month of November, the British Government had 
given them additional instructions to detain all vessels 
laden with the produce of any colony belonging to France, 
or carrying supplies to any such colony, and to bring them 
1 American State Papers, ii. 36. 



i8 4 SEEMING IMMINENCE OF WAR WITH FRANCE. 

with their cargoes, to British ports, for adjudication in 
the British Courts of Admiralty. Numerous captures of 
American vessels had occurred in pursuance of these orders, 
and the public feeling had naturally been greatly irritated 
thereby. 

Congress shared and participated in the popular excite- 
ment. Measures of high-handed character were discussed, 
and some such passed. It had, not without good reason, 
regarded the captures of American vessels as a measure 
little short of an open intention, if not amounting to a 
declaration of war. An embargo was laid, prohibiting all 
trade from the United States to any foreign place for the 
space of thirty days, and vigorous preparations for defence 
were adopted with but little opposition. 

The high-handed resolutions to the effect that all debts 
due to British subjects be sequestered and paid into the 
treasury, as a fund to indemnify citizens of the United 
States for depredations sustained from British cruisers, and 
that all intercourse with Great Britain be interdicted until 
she had made compensation for those injuries, and until she 
should make surrender of the western ports, had thrown to 
the winds all moderate feeling. The popular excitement 
was at fever heat. Meetings were held on the subject of 
British spoliation. 

Irving tells us that peace or war was the absorbing 
question. The partisans of France were now in the 
ascendant. It was scouted as pusillanimous any longer to 
hold terms with England. "No doubt," said they, "she 
despises the proclamation of neutrality, as an evidence of 
timidity ; every motive of self-respect calls on the people of 
the United States to show a proper spirit." It was sug- 
gested that those who were in favour of resisting British 
aggressions should mount the tricoloured cockade, and 
forthwith it was mounted by many ; while a Democratic 



CARTS LABOURS FOR PEACE MAINTENANCE. 185 



Society was formed to correspond with the one in Phila- 
delphia, and aid in giving effect to their popular sentiments. 

In the midst of this tumult, when passion endangered 
peace, Washington's trusty friend Robert Cary, as an 
advocate of peace and goodwill, moved about from pillar to 
post among public men in London, rendering signal service 
in gaining over indirectly the minds of leading statesmen, 
first to side with moderation, through his earnest appeal to 
justice and truth, followed by a more becoming sense of 
what was due to their own immediate kinsmen, brothers in 
blood, in thought, as in language and purpose. In forcible 
language he reminded the head of the English Government 
of the great Chief's integrity, truthfulness, and purity of 
heart. " Has he in the smallest act ever deceived the nation 
from which he sprang?" Further he reminded the then 
ruler of Britain of the great labours Washington had 
endured in carrying the new government to Its acknowledged 
successful point, pictured the treachery of France, and 
urged that strict justice alone should direct all acts and 
dealings between the countries. 

There was an eventful pause ; the efforts of a plain, 
simple-hearted, right intending man, such as Robert Cary, 
took effect, as they have done in more recent critical 
moments of England, and right and good sense prevailed. 
While the public mind was in this inflammable state, 
Washington received advices from Mr. Pinckney, the 
American Minister in London, informing him that the 
British Minister had issued instructions to the commanders 
of armed vessels revoking those of the 6th of November, 
1 793- Lord Grenville also, in conversation with Mr. 
Pinckney, had explained the real motives for that order, 
showing that, however oppressive in its execution, it had 
not been intended for the special vexation of American 
commerce. 

B b 



1 86 CARY'S LOVE AND VENERATION FOR WASHINGTON. 

Washington laid Pinckney's letter before Congress on 
the 4th of April, 1794. It had its effect on all parties, 
and there was a generally evident solicitude to avoid a 
rupture. Jefferson, though as he said, "groaning under 
the insults of Great Britain, yet I hope some means will 
turn up of reconciling our faith and honour with peace, for 
J have seen enough of one war never to wish to see 
another." It was an hour which drew from Hamilton : 
" 'Tis as great an error for a nation to overrate as to under- 
rate itself. Presumption is as great a fault as timidity. 
'Tis our error to overrate ourselves and underrate Great 
Britain ; we forget how little we can annoy, how much we 
may be annoyed." 

Robert Cary, the plain London merchant, who obtained 
for his fellow-men in England and America true presenta- 
tions of his ideal Washington, and who silently, and as it 
were unknown, exerted himself in quieting the elements 
disturbant of peace, was no common man. His love and 
admiration of Washington was intense, and although in the 
early history of the events leading to the separation of the 
countries he was a loyalist, yet the same force impelling 
Washington had like effect on him. He entered heart and 
soul into all his trials and struggles. Robert Cary, like 
his ideal, had been soundly educated ; his was a granite 
foundation laid in one of England's old-fashioned public 
grammar schools. He knew enough of classic lore to cause 
his mind to realize that the world could, in times of need, 
produce men of higher stuff than the mere worshipper of 
dollars. He had read of Leonidas and his Spartan band, 
and could realize that the world in his own day held at least 
one heart as rightly patriotic as were those whose deeds 
stand out as an example of patriotism overtopping in its 
stature, and outshining in its lustre, all the heroisms of 
doing and enduring for country's sake which the intervening 



WASHINGTON'S SUFFERINGS AND RECTITUDE. 1S7 



ages can present. He felt it towered over all subsequent his- 
tories of the world as such an illustration, and perhaps none 
will be recorded in those still to be written, that will excite 
so great and universal admiration. And, what adds to its 
lustre, the Spartan band went to their death to produce an 
example. Their fate was not an accident, like a thousand 
heroic deaths on the battle-field. The gorge in the moun- 
tains gave remarkable power to a few against a host of 
armed men, and it enabled the few to deal death and 
destruction to many times their number of the enemy. 
But when they planted themselves in the narrow and 
tortuous pass, they did not expect to hold it. They did not 
look to arrest the huge invasion longer than an hour or two 
at most. It was not for their practical value as a defence 
that they sold their lives, but to do a deed that should live 
in the longest memories of the Grecian nation and language ; 
that should burn a vestal flame on the altar of patriotism 
for ever, and fire every man, woman, and child of the 
commonwealth with new love and devotion to their country. 
They did not overrate the influence of their example. They 
had Greece only in their hearts when they performed the 
deed ; but it overspread nations and ages then unborn, and 
filled their histories with its inspiration. 

There are diversities even in patriotism. Robert Cary 
saw in Washington's sufferings for country, and in his 
purity and rectitude of heart and action, an example 
greatly needed in modern times, one that he felt would 
shed lustre on the future life of the great New World 
then starting into life, and his hopes have not been un- 
fulfilled. He saw in Patriotism one of the greatest facts in 
the character and history of human nature, and that in one 
essential characteristic it parallels, on a lower level, the great 
central doctrine of the Christian religion, and that it finds 
its best inspiration and expression in suffering — the suffering 

B b 2 



e88 CARTS INTIMACY WITH EDMUND BURKE. 

of the one or the few for the many, for the commonwealth, 
for the nation. Cary knew Washington's heart, and had 
shared his anxieties and sorrows. The fact of his some- 
what deserted state at critical moments excited his deepest 
sympathies. He was on terms of intimacy with Edmund 
Burke, who chummed with men on higher grounds than 
notoriety, worldly position, or even mental power. His 
estimate was that of real worth, which alone was the key 
to his great heart. Burke had early seen Washington's 
greatness, that he was to be the bright star of the Modern 
Firmament, and a Cary's urging helped to stay the force 
in England's Parliament acting against him. Burke felt 
the existence of a class of sufferings which do for nations, 
as a society, what individual experiences do to the particular 
country in which they transpire, sufferings which educate 
peoples, who in antecedent times have been mutual enemies 
to feel for and with each other in some event, bringing to 
one of their number a great affliction. It is this class 
which produce the flower of that slow-growing plant, inter- 
national sympathy and benevolence. Burke thoroughly 
realized the grand generality of Paul, uttered to the cynical 
casuists of Athens in the midst of Mars Hill, " God hath 
made of one blood all nations of men." 

It was the wisdom of Burke that laid down the axiom 
that to judge any living American by an European standard 
would generally result in error. He also foreshadowed 
and drew attention to the circumstance connected with the 
race of cultivators in America as altogether unparalleled in 
any other age or country of the world, and which has since 
been so eloquently expressed by the historian Alison. In 
every nation that has hitherto appeared, the enjoyment of 
property and engrossing of mankind in the cases of agricul- 
ture, have been found to be attended with the strongest 
possible attachment by the owner of the soil to the whole 



BURKE'S ESTIMATION OF AMERICANS. 189 

freeholds which they cultivate ; and nothing short of the 
greatest disasters in life has been able to tear them from 
the seats of their childhood, and the spots on which their 
own industry and that of their fathers has been exerted. 
Mungo Park has told us how strong this feeling is in the 
heart of Africa among the poor negroes: "To him no 
water is sweet but that which is drawn from his own well, 
and no shade refreshing but the tabba-tree of his native 
dwelling. When carried into captivity by a neighbouring 
tribe, he never ceases to languish during his exile, seizes 
the first opportunity to escape, rebuilds with haste his 
fallen walls, and exults to see the smoke ascend from his 
native village. In Ceylon, Bishop Heber tells us, the 
attachment of cultivators to their little property is such, 
that it is not unusual to see a man the proprietor of the 
hundred and fiftieth part of a single tree. In France, the 
same principle has always been strongly felt, and Arthur 
Young long ago remarked, that it continues with un- 
diminished strength, though the freehold is reduced to the 
fraction of a tree ; while in Canada, local attachment 
operates among the habitant of French descent with such 
force, that in place of extending into the surrounding wilds, 
the cultivators divide and subdivide among their children 
the freeholds they have already acquired ; population 
multiplies inwards, not outwards, and instead of spreading 
over and fertilizing the desert, it leads, as in old France, to 
an infinite subdivision among the inhabitants of the land 
already cultivated. 

In America, on the other hand, for the first time in the 
history of mankind, this strong and general feeling seems 
to be entirely obliterated. Though the labourers have 
probably derived greater advantages from the cultivator of 
the soil than any other people that ever existed, vet they 
have no sort of attachment either to the land which they 



iqo WASHINGTON ON EMIGRATION TO AMERICA. 



had acquired, or to that which they may have inherited 
from their fathers. Not only is real property generally sold 
and divided at the death of the head of a family, but even 
during his lifetime, immigation from one spot to another is 
so frequent, that it may be considered the grand social 
characteristic of the American people. To turn money 
into land, and take root in the soil, and leave his de- 
scendants there, is the great object of ambition in the Old 
World ; to turn land into money and leave his children 
afloat, but affluent in society is the universal advice in the 
New. This peculiarity is so remarkable and so totally at 
variance with what had previously ever been observed in 
nations engaged in the cultivation of the soil, that it may 
be considered, in a social point of view, as the grand 
characteristic of society in the United States of America. 

The great problem of the overflow of nations on the lands 
of the New World is shown by memoranda left by Sharpies 
to have been the subject of an earnest conversation between 
himself and Washington during his stay at Mount Vernon. 
Up to that period no great multitude had crossed the ocean 
to the new paradise prepared for them by the great bene- 
factor whose wisdom and humanity in providing homes for 
countless millions were on a par with his patriotism. The 
Chief said, "At no distant future, the despotically mis- 
governed and those forced out from over populated or less 
fertile countries will here seek an asylum. God grant our 
country may ever extend a welcome hand to the oppressed 
and needy of the whole world, then will America be ful- 
filling the great and providential destiny which my heart 
tells me the Almighty has willed to be hers." Beneficent 
words worthy of the heart of the Founder. 

Nearly a century of years has rolled by since Washington 
gave utterance to this dream of his great heart. It is a 
fitting subject to take a retrospect of the earlier features of 



ARRIVAL OF HOLLANDERS AND OLD PURITANS. 191 



this gathering of multitudes. Its progress in more recent 
times evidences the correctness of his far-seeing mind and 
judgment. 

When European enterprise first sought successfully 
permanent colonization on the shores of America, the spirit 
of adventure was not confined to those who were bound 
together by similar opinions, or the same habits of life. 
Diversity of motive led to the hazardous undertaking of 
emigration. The men who seated themselves on the 
pleasant waters of Virginia, impelled mostly by the hope of 
better fortunes, were sent forth and led out on their pilgrim- 
age by the fast friends of the crown and staunch adherents 
to the religious establishment of England. Next in order were 
the amphibious Hollanders, who brought with them their 
phlegmatic coolness, their untiring patience, calm courage, 
and indomitable industry ; they had fought at home a hard 
battle with the ocean and conquered ; and having snatched 
there a domain from the sea, they came to build up a 
domain on a land uncivilized, but they brought with them 
reverence for God, and held fast to the principles of the 
Synod of Dort. 

Next made his way to the iron-bound shores of New 
England, the stern old Puritan. He was brave, and his 
courage was sustained by enthusiasm; he sought to 
establish not merely a colony, but a religion also. He 
might be right or he might be wrong in his opinions — many 
of his children have since abandoned these; but he was 
honest and knew no fear of man. Heroic, indeed, were 
those brave men who faced the horrors of the awful winter 
of 1630. These, in a touching memorial, preserved by 
their own historian, when they were bidding a long, and, to 
some, an everlasting farewell to the homes of their child- 
hood, called the Church of England their " dear mother," 
ever acknowledging " that such hope and part as they had 



t 9 2 ARRIVAL OF VARIOUS OTHER NATIONALITIES. 

obtained in the common salvation, they had received in her 
bosom and sucked from her breasts." Yet, they were not 
in America conformists to the Church of England ? Their 
religious system approached nearer in its ceremonials to 
the Reformed Churches of France. 

And now the hardy Scandinavian from Sweden comes ; 
and prepared to cope alike with the rigours and the perilous 
labours of subduing a wilderness in which there lurked a 
savage foe ; he holds to the faith taught by the great 
German reformer, and calls himself a Lutheran. 

Presently appears Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, within 
the limits of what is now Maryland, planting his colony of 
Romanists at old St. Mary's. And to his honour be it 
said, he offered religious freedom to all. 

Next in the train is Penn, the leader of a pacific yet 
industrious and honest sect, who came to teach that human 
hearts might be won by kindness more easily than savage 
courage could be conquered by arms. 

The persecuted French Huguenot next found his way, 
seeking an escape from death and the privilege of wor- 
shipping God in peace, and finds a friendly asylum in more 
than one spot on the American continent. The names of 
this persecuted body of men still live among their de- 
scendants in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and both 
the Carolinas. 

The brave mountaineer of Switzerland, too, was not 
wanting. His undying love of home is attested by the 
names bestowed on some Southern towns, and the forests 
of the Carolinas resounded in early times with the songs in 
which the expatriated Swiss poured forth his fond remem- 
brance of the mountains and the valleys of his dear 
fatherland. His devotions were the prayers of a French 
Protestant. 

And last of all, in this enumeration, comes the German 



CONSOLIDATING THE VARYING MASS. 193 

Moravian, who penetrates the wilderness and plants his 
settlement, not for the sake of worldly gain, not to gratify 
earthly ambition, but that, in the noble spirit which has 
ever marked his brotherhood, he may, in the midst of peril 
and at every personal sacrifice, preach to the heathen the 
unsearchable riches of Christ. 

How varied the mass ! Different in religion, different in 
social feelings and manners, different in language ; agreeing 
in but the single fact that all are exiles from a fatherland, 
here God in His providence brought together on the American 
continent, the Englishman and the Hollander, the Swede 
and the Swiss, the German and the Frenchman. All brought 
with them the principle of religion ; all acknowledge the 
name of Christ, each in his own way ; and from many 
different spots in the land go up, to the same God, the 
prayers of the Protestant Episcopalian, and the Episcopalian 
of the Church of Rome, of the Reformed Dutch and the 
Lutheran, of the Moravian and the Huguenot. And this 
was the beginning of a great and free people. 

Now how shall this heterogeneous mass be fused into one 
great, consolidated nationality ? With but limited inter- 
course in the beginning, owing allegiance, in some instances 
to different sovereignties in different parts of Europe, and 
with different speech ; the difficulties in the way of such a 
fusion seem, to mere human enterprise, insurmountable — 
but that God who led forth all those wanderers from 
many lands, and who, from the beginning, in His wise 
providence, meant that there should be fusion, and that there 
should rise up here a powerful, united, and happy nation, as 
an instrument for the accomplishment of his purposes on 
this earth ; that God so orders events that gradually these 
disjointed materials shall assume something like the form of 
unity. The God that had made him a man implanted in 
him all the elements which go to the making of man who 

C c 



i 9 4 WASHINGTON THE INSTRUMENT TO EFFECT IT. 

will brook no insolent invasion of his rights as a man. 
Finally, the silent course of events in the lapse of time 
brought all the colonies under one sovereignty, that when 
the " hour and the man " should come, all should feel that 
they had one, and but one common enemy. 

The hour and the man did come. The hour was when 
the first blood was shed at Lexington ; the man was George 
Washington. And thus God had brought these early settlers 
their first sense of the indispensable necessity of consolida- 
tion ; but the light as yet was very feeble — they caught but 
a glimpse of the nationality ; they were very far from having 
reached it. The pressure from without, and that alone, 
created all the union they had ; they had not had time, nor 
were they ready yet to find enduring, God-created links of 
union 'within ; that was yet to come, for God's providences 
moved gradually. At length, against fearful odds, and by 
evident interposition of God Himself, as the brave old fathers 
piously acknowledged (for they were not ashamed to pray), 
they were recognized before the world as a free and 
independent people. 

But was it thereby made one nation, prepared, as the 
youngest in the sisterhood of nations, to take its place on 
earth ? Far from it ; the achievement of independence 
merely did not make it one nation : it only gave it the right 
and the power to make it so if so determined. But the 
importance of nationality did not appear to be felt ; but God 
saw fit to teach it them by experience that might not be for- 
gotten. It formed the old articles of confederation, the 
grand feature of which was simply a mutual pledge to stand 
by each other in resisting aggression ; for then, having long 
lived as separate colonies, and having known no other 
advantage of combination but that of opposing consolidated 
strength to the assault of a common foe, the federated 
land saw no need of nationality. It was for the moment 



THE CONSTITUTION A MONUMENT TO PATRIOTISM, i 



95 



content to be simply a league of petty and independent 



sovereignties. 



The wise and the good of all parties saw that some better 
bond of unity was necessary ; and it was this that under God 
gave birth to the Constitution of the United States. 

The principles embodied in that instrument became the 
people's sovereign, because they made it so. To that 
loyalty and allegiance are due. What matters it whether 
supreme authority be placed in a charter or a prince? It 
must reside somewhere. Let those who prefer it place it in 
a human being as the exponent and representative of certain 
unwritten principles, which they call a constitution. Ameri- 
cans embody the principles themselves, with no intervention 
of a human representative or exponent ; they have written 
them down, that they may be plainly read and understood 
of all the people, who, by themselves, or others chosen by 
themselves, made them the supreme principles, which, in 
government, should control all others. And in the instru- 
ment care was taken to avoid the collisions and bloodshed 
which sometimes flow from the ambition of human aspirants 
to a throne ; provision it was hoped was made for a peaceful 
mode of securing from the supreme power justice to all 
rights ; for, if in the lapse of time and altered state of 
society, the new relations created should call for modifica- 
tions or alterations in these principles, the people, who made 
the parchment monarch, quietly and by fixed rules, can intro- 
duce such changes as the majority may declare necessary. 
Alas ! it proved insufficient to prevent war with the South, 
although the Constitution triumphed in the end. But, 
changed or unchanged, it stands a monument of tht- 
patriotism and wisdom of the good old fathers, who shed 
their blood to purchase the power and the right to put it 
there. There it stands, rightfully demanding the love, the 
loyalty, the obedience of every true American heart. 

C C 2 




CHAPTER XI. 

Mount Vernon Washington's goal of happiness — His visits there when a child 
— Lawrence Washington's marriage with Anne Fairfax — Their residence 
at Mount Vernon built by him — George as a boy visiting there — Joseph 
Ball's letter to Mary Washington, discouraging the sending George to sea — 
Early susceptibility to female attractions — Appointed public surveyor to 
Culpepper County — Excels as an athlete — Introduced to Martha Custis — 
Courtship, marriage, and early married life — Domestic habits — George 
Mason his neighbour and friend — The churches in which he worshipped, 
and their ministers — Martha Washington's children — Her daughter's 
v death — Destroys her husband's letters — Lawrence at Mount Vernon — 
Sharpies assists in improving the grounds — Washington and Lafayette — 
Able summary of Washington's character from Hunt's Merchant's Magazine. 

MOUNT VERNON was Washington's pictured goal of 
earthly happiness, and yet how few and comparatively 
short were the opportunities permitted him to enjoy there 
the hoped-for rest. It is pleasant to know the real 
enjoyment vouchsafed to him on occasions of his heart 
being open to receive sunny impressions when really at 
rest in his Virginia home, and which are happily thus 
recorded : — 

" Strange as it may seem," wrote he to General Knox, 
on an occasion when revelling in peaceful enjoyment of his 
simple home life, " it is nevertheless true, that it was not 
until very lately that I could get the better of my usual 
custom of ruminating, as soon as I waked in the morning, 
on the business of the ensuing day ; and of my surprise at 
finding, after revolving many things in my mind, that I 
was no longer a public man, nor had anything to do with 
public transactions. I feel now, however, as I conceive a 
weary traveller must do, who, after treading many a weary 




ANGELICA PEALE, 

daughter ::' the Artist, whc placed the 3rown ::" Laurel ::-. Washington's He 

at Grays Firry, when proceeding *: assume the Presidency. 



Reproduced by the Autotype Company, London. From the original Oil Painting by /antes Sh 



M 



j- 



WASHING TON'S EN/0 YMENT A T MO UNT VERNON. 1 97 

step with a heavy burden on his shoulders, is eased of the 
latter, having reached the haven to which all the former 
were directed, and from his housetop is looking back, and 
tracing, with an eager eye, the meanders by which he 
escaped the quicksands and mires which lay in his way, 
and into which none but the all-powerful Guide and 
Dispenser of human events could have prevented his 
falling." 

Later on we see him as the worn and wearied soldier 
sighing for respite from ceaseless mental and bodily labour, 
and when feeling the effects of a more than physically over- 
taxed constitution. In a letter to Lafayette when deriving 
benefit from repose this same year, he writes, — " Free 
from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes of public 
life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments 
of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame ; the 
statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are 
spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his 
own, perhaps the ruin of other countries — as if this globe 
was insufficient for us all ; and the courtier, who is always 
watching the countenance of his prince in hopes of 
catching a gracious smile, can have very little conception. 
I have not only retired from all public employments, but 
I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the 
solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life, with 
heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined 
to be pleased with all ; and this, my dear friend, being the 
order of my march, I will move gently down the stream 
of life until I sleep with my fathers." 

Augustine Washington died in the spring of 1743, when 
his son George was eleven years of age, and by his last 
will and testament bequeathed his estate of Hunting 
Creek, upon a bay and stream of that name, near Alex- 
andria, to Lawrence Washington, a son by his first wife, 



r 9 8 LAWRENCE WASHINGTON SERVES UNDER VERNON. 

Jane Butler. It was a noble domain of many hundred 
acres, stretching for miles along the Potomac, and 
bordering the estates of the Fairfaxes, Masons, and other 
distinguished families. 

Lawrence, who seems to have inherited the military 
spirit of his family, had lately been to the wars. Admiral 
Vernon, Commander-in-chief of England's navy in the 
West Indies, had lately chastised the Spaniards for their 
depredations upon British commerce by capturing Porto 
Bello, on the isthmus of Darien. The Spaniards prepared 
to strike an avenging blow, and the French determined 
to help them. England and her colonies were aroused. 
Four regiments, for service in the West Indies, were to be 
raised in the American colonies ; and from Massachusetts 
to the Carolinas the fife and drum of the recruiting-sergeant 
were heard. Lawrence, then a spirited young man of 
twenty-two, was among the thousands who caught the in- 
fection, and, obtaining a captain's commission, he embarked 
for the West Indies in 1 741 with between 3000 and 
4000 men, under General Wentworth. That officer and 
Admiral Vernon commanded a joint expedition against 
Carthagena, in South America, which resulted in disaster. 
According to the best authorities not less than 20,000 
British soldiers and seamen perished, chiefly from a fatal 
sickness that prevailed, especially among the troops, who 
were commanded by General Wentworth. To that 
scourge, Thompson, in his " Summer," thus touchingly 

alludes : — 

" You, gallant Vernon, saw 
The miserable scene ; you, pitying, saw 
To infant weakness sunk the warrior's arm, 
Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form, 
The lip pale, quivering, and the beamless eye 
No more with ardour bright ; you heard the groans 



LA JFRENCE'S MARRIA GE WITH ANNE FAIRFAX. 1 99 

Of agonizing ships, from shore to shore, 
Heard, nightly plunged amid the sullen waves, 
The frequent corse; while on each other fixed 
In sad presage, the blank assistants seemed 
Silent, to ask, whom fate would next demand." 

In the midst of that terrible pestilence the system of 
Lawrence Washington received those seeds of fatal disease 
against whose growth it struggled manfully for ten years, 
and then yielded. 

Lawrence returned home in the autumn of 1742, the 
provincial army, in which he had served, having been dis- 
banded, and Admiral Vernon and General Wentworth re- 
called to England. He had acquired the friendship and 
confidence of both these officers. For several years he 
kept up a correspondence with the former, and received from 
him a copy of a medal struck in commemoration of the 
capture of Porto Bello by Admiral Vernon. This was pre- 
served at Mount Vernon until Washington's death. 

Lawrence intended to go to England, join the regular 
army, and seek preferment therein ; but love changed his 
resolution and the current of his life, for 

" Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, 
And man below, and saints above." 

Beautiful Anne, the eldest daughter of the Honourable 
William Fairfax, of Fairfax County, became the object 
of his warm attachment, and they were betrothed. Their 
nuptials were about to be celebrated in the spring of 1743, 
when a sudden attack of gout in the stomach deprived 
Lawrence of his father. But the marriage took place in 
July. All thoughts of military life as a profession passed 
from the mind of Lawrence, and, taking possession of his 
Hunting Creek estate, he erected a plain substantial mansion 



zoo LAWRENCE WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. 



upon the highest eminence along the Potomac front of his 
domain, and named the spot MOUNT VERNON, in 
honour of the gallant admiral. 



* 




WESTERN FRONT OF MOUNT VERNON AS IT AITEARED IN 1S5S. 

In this mansion Lawrence resided until his death, and but 
little change was made in its appearance from the time when 
it came into the possession of his brother George by inheri- 
tance until the close. of the old War for Independence. It 
has been described as a house of the first class then occupied 
by thrifty Virginia planters ; two stories in height, with a 
porch in front, and a chimney built inside, at each end, 
contrary to the prevailing style. It stood upon a most 
lovely spot, on the brow of a gentle slope, which ended at 
a thickly-wooded precipitous river-bank, its summit nearly 
ioo feet above the water. Before it swept the Potomac 
with a magnificent curve, its broad bosom swarming with 
the graceful swan, the gull, the wild duck, and smaller 
water-fowl ; and beyond lay the green fields and shadowy 
forests of Maryland. 



THE FAIRFAXES AT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA. 



When Lawrence was fairly settled with his bride in 
this new and pleasant home, little George was a frequent 
and much-petted visitor at Mount Vernon. His half- 
brother loved him tenderly, and, after their father's death, 
he took a paternal interest in all his concerns. The social 
influences to which he was subjected were of the highest 
order. The Fairfaxes held the first rank in wealth and 
social position, both in England and in Virginia ; and the 
father-in-law of Lawrence, who occupied a beautiful country 
seat, not far from Mount Vernon, called Belvoir, was a man 
of distinction, having served as an officer of the British 
army in the East and West Indies, and officiated as 
Governor of New Providence, one of the Bermudas. He 
now managed an immense landed estate belonging to his 
cousin, Lord Fairfax, a tall, gaunt, raw-boned, near-sighted 
man, upon whom had fallen the snows of sixty winters, and 
who, made shy and eccentric by disappointed love in early 
life, was now in Virginia and living at Belvoir, but secretly 
resolving to go over the Blue Mountains of the West, and 
make his home in the deep wilderness, away from the 
haunts of men. Thither he went a few years later, and 
in the great valley of Virginia took up his abode in a lodge 
at a spot where he resolved to build a manor-house, in the 
midst of 10,000 acres of arable and grazing land, call it 
Greenway Court, and live a solitary lord over a vast domain. 
But the mansion was never built, and in that lodge the 
lord of the manor lived during all the stormy days of the 
French and Indian war, and as a staunch loyalist through- 
out the struggles of the Americans for independence, until 
the news came one day that his young friend Washington 
had captured Cornwallis and all his army. Then, says 
tradition, he called to his servant and said, — 
" Come, Joe, carry me to my bed, for 
I'm sure it's high time for me to die ! " 

D d 



202 GEORGE AT AIT. VERNON WITH UNCLE LA WRENCE. 

" Then up rose Joe, all at the word, 

And took his master's arm, 
And to his bed he softly led 

The lord of Greenway farm. 
Then thrice he called on Britain's name, 

And thrice he wept full sore, 
Then sighed — ' O Lord, Thy will be done ! ' 

And word spake never more." 

It was early in 1785, at the age of ninety-two years, that 
Lord Fairfax died at Greenway Court, loved by many for 
his generosity and benevolence. 

Lawrence Washington was also distinguished for his 
wealth and intelligence. He was adjutant-general of his 
district, with the rank and pay of major, and at this time 
was a popular member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. 
At Mount Vernon and at Belvoir the sprightly boy George, 
who was a favourite everywhere, became accustomed to the 
refinements and amenities of English social life in its best 
phases, and this had a marked influence upon his future 
character. 

There were other influences there which made a deep 
impression upon the mind of the thoughtful boy. Some- 
times the companions-in-arms of his brother, or officers from 
some naval vessel that came into the Potomac, would be 
guests at Mount Vernon, and perils by field and flood would 
be related. In these narratives Sir William Fairfax often 
joined, and related his experience in the far-off Indies, in 
marches, battles, sieges, and retreats. These fired the soul 
of young Washington with longings for adventure, and 
accordingly we find him, at the age of fourteen years, pre- 
paring to enter the English navy as a midshipman, a warrant 
having been procured. His brother and Mr. Fairfax en- 
couraged his inclination, and his mother's reluctant consent 



JOSEPH BALLS LETTER TO MAR Y WASHINGTON. 203 

was obtained. A vessel of war was lying in the Potomac, 
and the lad's luggage was on board, when his mother 
received the following letter from her uncle in England, 
dated Stratford-by-Bow, 19th May, 1747: — 

" I understand that you are advised and have some 
thoughts of putting your son George to sea. I think he 
had better be put apprentice to a tinker, for a common 
sailor before the mast has by no means the common liberty 
of the subject ; for they will press him from a ship where 
he has fifty shillings a month and make him take twenty- 
three, and cut, and slash, and use him like a negro, or 
rather, like a dog. And as to any considerable preferment 
in the navy, it is not to be expected, as there are always so 
many gaping for it here who have interest, and he has none. 
And if he should get to be master of a Virginia ship (which 
it is very difficult to do), a planter that has three or four 
hundred acres of land and three or four slaves, if he be 
industrious, may live more comfortably, and leave his family 
in better bread, than such a master of a ship can. . . . He 
must not be too hasty to be rich, but go on gently and with 
patience, as things will naturally go. This method, without 
aiming at being a fine gentleman before his time, will carry 
a man more comfortably and surely through the world than 
going to sea, unless it be a great chance indeed. I pray 
God keep you and yours. 

" Your loving brother, 

"Joseph Ball." 

Joseph Ball, you were a brother indeed when you sent 
this good advice to your loving niece Mary. Many uncles 
forget young relatives after marrying, and especially do 
they cease corresponding with them if their lot is cast in 
far-off lands. Most probably you knew her virtues and 

D d 2 



20 4 JOHN BALL'S HOME AT STRA TF0RD-LE-B0 W. 

goodness, and, above all, may not the Great Almighty have 
directed your heart to manifest this interest in that boy ? 
You never ceased your interest through distance. Mary 
had the same good sense in acting on your good advice, 
as her son evidenced in yielding to his mother's judgment 
and wishes by following the same. What strange outcomes 
may be seen by such as watch and observe thoughtfully ! 
These lines, for instance, are penned close to that very 
Stratford-le-Bow, in England, where John Ball lived when he 
wrote that letter to his brother's child, Mary, and which 
determined the future liberties of a world. The portrait of 
Mary, by Middleton, as those of her son George and his wife 
Martha, by Sharpies, have been destined to get back to 
England, hallowing a residence a few miles only from that 
same spot. How true it is, that the realities of life are 
more remarkable than the conjurings of fiction ! 

This letter, without doubt, made the mother decide to act 
according to the desire of her heart, for already a friend had 
written to Lawrence : " I am afraid Mrs. Washington will 
not keep up to her first resolution. ... I find that one 
word against his going has more weight than ten for it." 
She could not expose her son to the hardships and perils of 
the British navy, so vividly portrayed by his uncle. Her 
consent was withdrawn, and George Washington, with dis- 
appointed ambition, returned to school, fell desperately in 
love with a "lowland beauty" (who reciprocated not his 
passion, but became the mother of General Henry Lee), 
indited sentimental verses, as young lovers are apt to do, 
sighed for a time in great unhappiness, and then went to 
live with his brother at Mount Vernon, in partial forgetfulness 
that he had once dreamed that — 
" She was his life, 
The ocean to the river of his thoughts, 
Which terminated all." 



HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH THE FAIRFAX FAMIL Y. 205 

Now it was that young Washington's real intimacy with 
the Fairfax family commenced, and an attachment was 
formed between himself and George William Fairfax, his 
senior by six or seven years, who had just brought his bride 
and her sister to Belvoir. 

Young Washington's heart was tender and susceptible, 
and that bride's beautiful sister tried its constancy to his 
first love very sorely. To his young friend "Robin" he 
wrote: " My residence is at present at his lordship's, where 
I might, was my heart disengaged, pass my time very 
pleasantly, as there is a very agreeable young lady lives in 
the same house (Colonel George Fairfax's wife's sister); but 
as that is only adding fuel to fire, it makes me the more 
uneasy, for by often and unavoidably being in company with 
her, revives my former passion for ' your Lowland Beauty,' 
whereas, was I to live more retired from young women, I 
might in some measure alleviate my sorrows by burying that 
chaste and troublesome passion in the grave of oblivion." 
Thus wrote George Washington before he was sixteen years 
of age. 

He was soon taken from these temptations. He was a 
tall, finely-formed, athletic youth, and Lord Fairfax, who 
was a passionate fox-hunter, though old in years, invited 
him one day to join him in the chase. His lordship was so 
charmed with his young friend's boldness in the saddle, and 
enthusiastic pursuit of the hounds and game, that he took 
him to his bosom as a companion ; and many a hard day's 
ride this young and old man had together after that in the 
forests of Virginia. 

But a more noble, because a more useful pursuit than the 
mere pleasures of the chase, now offered its attractions to 
the lad. Master Williams had taught him the mysteries of 
surveying, and the old Lord Fairfax, having observed his 
practice of the art at Mount Vernon, and his extreme care 



206 APPOINTED SURVEYOR OF CULPEPPER COUNTY. 

and accuracy, proposed to him to go to his broad posses- 
sions beyond the Blue Ridge, where lawless intruders were 
seated, and prepare his domain for settlement, by running 
boundary lines between large sections. The lad gladly 
acceded to the proposition, and just a month from the time 
he was sixteen years of age he set off upon the arduous and 
responsible enterprise. 

In the wilderness around the south branch of the Potomac 
the future leader received those lessons in woodcraft, that 
personal knowledge of the country and its dusky inhabitants, 
and, above all, that spirit of self-reliance which was ever a 
most marked and important trait in his character — which 
fitted him for the great duties of a commander. 

So satisfactory were young Washington's services on the 
occasion, that he received, soon after his return, the appoint- 
ment of public surveyor, and upon the records of Culpepper 
county may be read, under date of July 30th, 1749 (O. S.) 
that "GEORGE WASHINGTON, Gent., produced a 
commission from the President and Master of William 
and Mary College, appointing him to be surveyor of this 
county, which was read, and thereupon he took the usual 
oaths to his Majesty's person and government, and took and 
subscribed the abjuration oath and test, and then took the 
oath of a surveyor, according to law." Part of each year 
he was beyond the Alleghaines with no other instruments 
than compass and chain, acquiring strength of limb and 
purpose for future great achievements, and putting money in 
his purse at the rate of a doubloon and sometimes six 
pistoles a day. These expeditions he always remembered 
as the greatest pleasures of his youth. 

An admirable article published some forty years ago in 
Putnam's Magazine thus stated the family occurrences at 
the time : — 

" The good father was cut off by a sudden illness before 



WASHINGTON AT SCHOOL OF WILLIAMS. 207 

he had reached his fiftieth year, and George, with a large 
family of brothers and sisters, was left to the care of his 
mother. Each child had an estate, for the father was 
rich in lands ; but the proceeds of all were placed wholly 
within the widow's control during the minority of the 
children, a circumstance which speaks plainly enough the 
husband's confidence in her judgment and kindness. 
Two sons of the first marriage were young men at the 
time of their father's decease, but Mrs. Washington had 
five children of her own, of whom George, at that time 
about eleven, was the oldest. He was absent, Mr. Weems 
says, when his father was so suddenly summoned, and 
arrived at home only to find him speechless, and to 
witness his final departure. The family seems to have 
been very much united, and George and his half-brothers 
were ever firm friends. After his father's death he 
lived for a while with the younger of them, Augustine, in 
Westmoreland, the place of his nativity, which had been 
bequeathed to the second son. Here he went to school, to 
a Mr. Williams, who, Mr. Weems says, " knew as little of 
Latin, perhaps, as Balaam's ass," but who was able to give 
him the elements of common school knowledge, which were 
happily enough in this case. We need not doubt the report 
that he was very soon the natural head of the school, not 
so particularly by means of scholarship as through certain 
other qualities so amply exhibited in after-life. He was 
the umpire in all little school quarrels, the boys having 
implicit faith in his justice ; he was easily the leader in all 
athletic sports, through life his delight ; and by some 
strange, prophetic instinct — prophecy often works its own 
fulfilment — it was his pride to form his schoolmates into 
military companies, with corn-stalks for muskets and cala- 
bashes for drums, and these he drilled and exercised, as 
well as commanded and led to mimic battle. He is said to 



2o3 WASHINGTON'S EXCELLENCE IN ATHLETIC SPORTS. 

have been famous for hindering quarrels, however, and 
perhaps his early developed taste for military manoeuvres 
was only an accidental form of that love of mathematical 
combination and extreme regularity and order of every kind 
which characterized him through life. But there was 
a political bias, too, for the boy-army was arrayed in two 
bands, one of them personating the French, always an 
antagonistic idea to the English ; the former commanded 
by a lad named William Bustle, the latter always by George 
Washington. It is rather remarkable that so exciting a 
sport did not end in quarrels, if not in lasting enmity, for 
the temperament of Washington was impetuous, and his 
passions were fiery, though we are little accustomed to 
think so, from our habit of contemplating only his after-life, 
so marked by self-control. He was, nevertheless, known 
as a peacemaker, even thus early, and we have every 
reason to believe that peace continued to be his darling 
idea through all the struggles which duty led him to 
engage in. 

He was also noted for running and wrestling, pitching 
the bar, and leaping with a pole. Whatever stirred his 
blood and brought into exercise the stalwart limbs and 
muscles with which nature had endowed him, was his 
delight. His young lady cousins complained that George 
cared nothing for their company, but would always be out 
of doors. And an old gentleman, a neighbour, is quoted 
as saying, " Egad ! he ran wonderfully ! We had nobody, 
hereabouts, that could come near him. There was young 
Langhorne Dade, of Westmoreland, a confounded clean- 
made tight young fellow, and a mighty swift runner too, 
but he was no match for George." 

Colonel Lewis Willis, his playmate and kinsman, had 
" often seen him throw a stone across the Rappahannock, 
at the lower ferry of Fredericksburg," a feat, it seems, not 



WASHINGTON'S SKILL AS A SURVEYOR. 209 

very likely to be equalled in our degenerate days. This 
great strength was inherited from his father, whose fowling- 
piece — still extant, it is believed — is of extraordinary 
weight, confirming the tradition of the old planter's 
muscular powers. 

That his efforts to live up to his own notions of right 
began very early we must conclude from the interest that 
he inspired in his half-brothers — not the most likely per- 
sons, as the world goes, to overrate him — and they seem 
to have been ever his warmest friends. The eldest brother 
having been an officer in the war against the French, and 
served also at the siege of Carthagena and in the West 
Indies, under General Wentworth and Admiral Vernon. He 
was residing on the property left him by his father — that 
farm, for ever famous, which he had called Mount Vernon, 
in compliment to the gallant admiral ; and here George went 
to live with him, soon after leaving school. 

This was in his sixteenth year. Before this time he had 
shown a decided predilection for geometry, trigonometry, 
and surveying, which, as the profession of a surveyor was 
at that time particularly profitable, his friends had en- 
couraged, and he had pursued the requisite studies with 
characteristic earnestness. The last two years of his 
school-life were chiefly given to the theory and practice 
of the art which laid the foundation of his fortune, not only 
by the opportunity it gave him of purchasing new lands 
advantageously, but by the habits he then acquired of cal- 
culation, accuracy, and neatness, so conspicuously useful 
to him through all the important affairs which devolved 
upon him in after-life. When, by way of practice, he sur- 
veyed the little domain around the school-house, the plots 
and measurements were entered in his book with all the 
care and precision of the most important business ; and 
if an erasion was required, it was done with a penknife, 

E e 



2 1 o WASHINGTON'S EARL Y INSTR UCTORS. 

and with such care that scarce the trace of the error can 
be perceived. 

" Nor was his skill," says Mr. Sparks, " confined to the 
more simple processes of the art. He used logarithms, 
and proved the accuracy of his work by different methods. 
The manuscripts fill several quires of paper, and are re- 
markable for the care with which they were kept, the 
neatness and uniformity of the handwriting, the beauty of 
the diagrams, and a precise method and arrangement in 
copying out tables and columns of figures. These par- 
ticulars will not be thought too trivial to be mentioned, 
when it is known that he retained similar habits through 
life. His business papers, day-books, ledgers, and letter- 
books, in which, before the Revolution, no one wrote but 
himself, exhibit specimens of the same studious care and 
exactness. Every fact occupies a clear and distinct 
place. The constructing of tables, diagrams, and other 
figures relating to numbers or classification was an exer- 
cise in which he seems at all times to have taken much 
delight." 

Washington had but two teachers, one, an old fellow 
named Hobby, one of his father's tenants, sexton as well 
as schoolmaster of the neighbourhood, who used to boast, 
after he was superannuated and somewhat addicted to 
strong potations, especially on the general's birthdays, that 
it was he who, between his knees, had laid the foundation 
of George Washington's greatness by teaching him his 
letters ; and the other the Mr. Williams already mentioned, 
who was, according to Mr. Weems, "a capital hand" 
at reading, spelling, English grammar, arithmetic, surveying, 
bookkeeping, and geography, and often boasted that he 
had made George Washington as great a scholar as himself. 
Doubtless to Weems' thoroughness in teaching what he did 
know, his great pupil owed much of his acquired power ; a 



INTIMACY WITH THE FAIRFAX FA Ml IV. 211 

good foundation in a few things is the best beginning for a 
boy of ability ; his mother's instruction, however, proved the 
more important. 

Among the influences that conspired to mature the mind 
and refine the manners of Washington, we must account 
his intimacy with the Fairfax family, sensible as well as 
well-bred people, and living on a large fortune in the 
exercise of liberal hospitality. Lord Fairfax, besides the 
social advantages which resulted from his rank, had had 
a University education, when such culture was a distinc- 
tion, and he seems, moreover, to have been a person of 
independent ways of thinking, and a discernment and 
practical sagacity not always found in high places. His 
nephew, William Fairfax, was wealthy, and held a high 
position in the colony. The family was, altogether, the 
first in the district where they lived, and one such family 
inevitably does much towards raising the general standard 
of manners and ideas in its neighbourhood. A young man 
must be dull indeed if the society of gentlemen and elegant 
women has no inspiration for him. When we read George 
Washington's " Rules of Civility and decent Behaviour in 
Company and Conversation," we need no assurance that 
no grace of manner, refinement of expression, or conven- 
tional improvement that came under his observation at 
Mr. Fairfax's passed unnoted. The exquisite propriety of 
address and conduct, so often mentioned as having dis- 
tinguished him, may not improbably have owed no little 
of its finish to these early opportunities ; to suppose so 
much elegance the natural product of innate refinement, 
in spite of plain farmer's living in early youth, and the 
rough career of a practical surveyor afterwards, might be 
more complimentary, but scarcely so rational. Lord Fairfax 
was not a courtier, any more than his American planter- 
nephew ; and Washington never became one ; but only in 

E e 2 



2i2 WASHINGTON'S RESERVED MANNER. 

all circumstances a gentleman. This is as evident in the 
early journal from which we have just quoted a few 
passages, as in the letters written in after-life to ladies and 
the most distinguished men. Self-respect ever regulates 
and limits his complimentary expressions, as it had in 
early life afforded the standard by which he judged so un- 
erringly the dispositions of others towards himself, and 
decided on the fitness of the circumstances in which he 
was placed. He had an exquisite sense of personal respect, 
and as he never forgot, or was mistaken about the amount 
of it due to others, so he never hazarded his own claims 
by requiring more than he knew himself entitled to, and 
able to exact. In reading his correspondence, so voluminous 
and various, as well as so remarkable in other respects, 
this propriety is ever most striking. 

It is most interesting to observe, in studying the career 
of Washington from the very beginning, how entirely he 
was a man of peace, though so much of his life was passed 
in making war, and that with an iron will and unflinching 
thoroughness. He seems to have done his duty in the 
character of a soldier just as coolly and regularly as he 
did in that of a surveyor. He knew his work, and he set 
about it with all his powers of mind and body ; but we 
never feel for a moment that it was work that he loved. 
He loved rural life, the occupations of the farm, the sports 
of the field, the enjoyments of the fireside. Much has been 
said of his reserve, as if it were exclusiveness ; but his 
letters and his constant home practice show conclusively 
that no man depended more upon friendship, or found 
society more necessary to his enjoyment. He kept only 
his cares to himself, and those only when to impart them 
would have been injurious or unprofitable. As he grew 
older, weighty business made him more grave and silent ; 
but we should always carry with us, in attempting to 



HIS FIRST INTERVIEW WITH MRS. CUSTIS. 213 

appreciate his character as a man, the idea of him that 
we gather from the record of his earlier days ; the kindli- 
ness, the sociability, the generous confidence, the courageous 
candour that marked him then, and evidently formed part 
of the very structure of his being. Whoever can read his 
journals and early letters without imbibing an affection, as 
well as reverence for him, must have sat down to the task 
with enormous prepossessions, derived from the accounts 
of his later life. 

Washington's first interview with Mrs. Custis, afterwards 
his wife, is thus delightfully narrated in a memoir of 
Martha Washington, in Longacre's American Portrait 
Gallery, by Sparks attributed to the pen of G. W. P. 
Custis. 

"It was in 1758 that an officer, attired in a military 
undress, and attended by a body servant, tall and militaire 
as his chief, crossed the ferry called Williams', over the 
Pamunkey, a branch of the York river. On the boat 
touching the southern or New Kent side, the soldier's 
progress was arrested by one of those personages who give 
the beau ideal of the Virginia gentleman of the old regime, 
the very soul of kindliness and hospitality. It was in 
vain that the soldier urged his business at Williamsburg, 
important communications to the Governor, &c. Mr. 
Chamberlayne, on whose domain the militaire had just 
landed, would hear of no excuse. Colonel Washing-ton was 
a name and character so dear to all the Virginians, that his 
passing by one of the old castles of Virginia without calling 
and partaking of the hospitalities of the host was entirely 
out of the question. The colonel, however, did not sur- 
render at discretion, but stoutly maintained his ground, till 
Chamberlayne, bringing up his reserve in the intimation 
that he would introduce his friend to a young and charming 



2i4 HIS BODY-SERVANT BISHOP. 

widow then beneath his roof, the soldier capitulated on 
condition that he should dine — only dine — and then, by- 
pressing his charger and borrowing of the night, he would 
reach Williamsburg before his Excellency could shake off 
his morning slumbers. Orders were accordingly issued to 
Bishop, the colonel's body-servant and faithful follower, who, 
together with a fine English charger, had been bequeathed 
by the dying Braddock to Major Washington on the famed 
and fatal field of the Monongahela. Bishop, bred in the 
school of European discipline, raised his hand to his cap, as 
much as to say, ' Your honour's orders shall be obeyed.' 

" The colonel now proceeded to the mansion, and was 
introduced to various guests (for when was a Virginian 
domicile of the olden time without guests?), and, above all, 
to the charming widow. Tradition relates that they were 
mutually pleased on this their first interview ; nor is it 
remarkable. They were of an age when impressions are 
strongest. The lady was fair to behold, of fascinating 
manners, and splendidly endowed with worldly benefits ; the 
hero, fresh from his early fields, redolent of fame, and with 
a form on which ' every god did seem to set his seal to give 
the world assurance of a man.' 

"The morning passed pleasantly; evening came, with 
Bishop, true to his orders and firm at his post, holding the 
favourite charger with one hand, while the other was waiting 
to offer the ready stirrup. The sun sank in the horizon, 
and yet the colonel appeared not ; and then the old soldier 
marvelled at his chief's delay. ' 'Twas strange, 'twas 
passing strange ;' surely he was not wont to be a single 
moment behind his appointments, for he was the most 
punctual of all punctual men. Meantime the host enjoyed 
the scene of the veteran on duty at the gate, while the 
colonel was so agreeably employed in the parlour; and 
proclaiming that no guest ever left his house after sunset, 



HIS COURTSHIP OF MARTHA CUSTIS. 215 



his military visitor was without much difficulty persuaded to 
order Bishop to put up the horses for the night. The sun 
rode high in the heavens the next day when the enamoured 
soldier pressed with his spur his charger's side and speeded 
on his way to the seat of government, where, having 
despatched his public business, he retraced his steps, and 
at the White House the engagement took place, with 
preparations for the marriage. 

"And much hath the biographer heard of that marriage 
from grey-haired domestics, who waited at the board where 
love made the feast and Washington was the guest. And 
rare and high was the revelry at that palmy period of 
Virginia's festal age, for many were gathered to that 
marriage of the good, the great, the gifted, and the gay, 
while Virginia, with joyous acclamation, hailed in her 
youthful hero a prosperous and happy bridegroom. 

" 'And so you remember when Colonel Washington came 
a-courting of your mistress?' said the biographer to old 
Cully, in his hundredth year. 

"'Ay, master, that I do,' replied the ancient family 
servant, who had lived to see five generations ; ' great times, 
sir, great times ; shall never see the like again.' 

" 'And Washington looked something like a man, a proper 
man — hey, Culley ?' 

" ' Never seed the like, sir ; never the likes of him, though 
I have seen many in my day : so tall, so straight — and then 
he sat a horse and rode with such an air ! Ah ! sir, he was 
like no one else. Many of the grandest gentlemen in their 
gold lace were at the wedding, but none looked like the 
man himself.' 

" Strong, indeed, must have been the impressions which 
the person and manner of Washington made upon the rude, 
' untutored mind ' of this poor negro, since the lapse of 
three-quarters of a century had not sufficed to efface them. 






2i6 HIS MARRIAGE WITH MARTHA. 



"The precise date of the marriage cannot be discovered 
among the records of the vestry of St. Peter's Church, 
New Kent, of which the reverend Mr. Mossom, a Cam- 
bridge scholar, was the rector, and performed the cere- 
mony, it is believed, about 1759. A short time after their 
marriage, Colonel and Lady Washington removed to 
Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, and permanently settled 
there." 

Like other gentlemen living near the Potomac, Washing- 
ton was fond of aquatic sports. He kept a handsome barge 
which, on special occasions, was manned by black oarsmen 
in liver)'. Pleasant sailing-boats were frequently seen 
sweeping along the surface of the river, freighted with 
ladies and gentlemen going from mansion to mansion on 
its banks — Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, Belvoir, and 
other places — on social visits. 

Washington and his wife frequently visited Annapolis and 
Williamsburg, the respective capitals of Maryland and 
\ irginia. For fifteen consecutive years he was a member 
of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and Mrs. Washington 
spent much of her time with him at Williamsburg during 
the sessions. Both fond of amusements, they frequently 
attended the theatrical representations there and at 
Annapolis, that entertainment being then a recent importa- 
tion from England, the first company of actors, under the 
direction of Lewis Hallam, having first performed in the 
Maryland capital in 1752. They also attended balls and 
parties given by the fashionable people of Williamsburg 
and Annapolis, and frequently joined in the dance. But 
after the Revolution, Washington was never known to dance, 
his last performance being in a minuet, of which he was very 
fond, on the occasion of a ball given at Fredericksburg in 
honour of the French and American officers then there, on 



HIS EARLY MARRIED LIFE. 



their way north, after the capture of Cornwallis towards the 
close of 1 78 1. 

But it must not be supposed that during these years of 
his earlier married life Washington's time was wholly or 
even chiefly occupied in the pleasures of the chase and of 
social intercourse. Far from it. He was a man of great 
industry and method, and managed his large estates with 
signal industry and ability. He did not leave his farms to 
the entire care of his overseers. He was very active, and 
continually, even when absent on public business, exercised 
a general supervision of his affairs, requiring a carefully- 
prepared report of all operations to be transmitted to him 
weekly for his inspection and suggestions. 

He was very abstemious, and while his table always 
furnished his guests with ample and varied supplies for their 
appetites, he never indulged in the least excess, either in 
eating or drinking. He was an early riser, and might be 
found in his library from one to two hours before daylight in 
winter, and at dawn in summer. His toilet, plain and 
simple, was soon made. A single servant prepared his 
clothes, and laid them in a proper place at night for use in 
the morning. He also combed and tied his master's hair. 

Washington always dressed and shaved himself. Though 
neat in his dress and appearance, he never wasted precious 
moments upon his toilet, for he always regarded time, not 
as a gift but as a loan, for which he must account to the 
Great Master. 

Washington kept his own accounts most carefully and 
methodically, in handwriting remarkable for its extreme 
neatness and uniformity of stroke. This was produced by 
the constant use of a gold pen. One of these, with a silver 
case, used by Washington during a part of the old war for 
independence, he presented to his warm personal friend, 
General Anthony Walton White, of New Jersey, one of the 

F f 



2i8 WASHINGTON'S CORRECT JOURNALIZING. 

most distinguished and patriotic of the cavalry officers of 
that war in the southern campaigns. It is now in the pos- 
session of Mrs. Eliza M. Evans, near Brunswick, New 
Jersey, the only surviving child of General White. In one 
end of the silver pen-case is a sliding tube for a common 
black-lead pencil, the convenient " ever-pointed" pencil 
being unknown in Washington's time. That was invented 
by Isaac Hawkins, and patented by him in London in 
1802. 

From his youth Washington kept a diary. For many 
years these records of his daily experience were made on 
the blank leaves of the " Virginia Almanac." This man of 
mighty labours kept such records, from day to day, for 
more than forty years ; and he frequently noted therein 
minute particulars concerning his agricultural operations. 

Thus minutely journalizing his agricultural proceedings, 
keeping his own accounts, making all his own surveys, and 
even before the Revolution, having an extensive correspon- 
dence, Washington found much daily employment for his 
pen. The labours in his library, and a visit to his stables, 
usually occupied the hours before breakfast. After making 
a frugal meal of Indian cakes, honey, and tea or coffee, he 
would mount his horse, and visit every part of his estate 
where the current operations seemed to require his presence, 
leaving his guests to enjoy themselves with books and 
papers, or otherwise, according to their choice. He rode 
upon his farms entirely unattended, opening the gates, 
pulling down and putting up the fences, and inspecting, 
with a careful eye, every agricultural operation, and per- 
sonally directing the manner in which many should be 
performed. Sometimes the tour of his farms in the 
course of the morning might average, in distance, twelve 
or fifteen miles ; and on these occasions his appearance was 
exceedingly plain. Mr. Custis, his adopted son, has left 



HIS DOMESTIC HABITS. 219 



on record a description of him on one of these occasions, 
in the latter years of his life, which he gave to a gentleman 
who was out in search of Washington. 

" You will meet, sir," said young Custis to the inquirer, 
" with an old gentleman riding alone, in plain drab clothes, 
a broad-brimmed white hat, a hickory switch in his hand, 
and carrying an umbrella with a long staff, which is attached 
to his saddle-bow — that person, sir, is General Washington.'' 
The umbrella was used to shelter him from the sun, for his 
skin was tender and easily affected by its rays. 

His breakfast-hour was seven o'clock in summer and 
eight in winter, and he dined at three. He always ate 
heartily, but was no epicure. His usual beverage was small 
beer or cider, and Madeira wine. Of the latter he often 
drank several small glasses at a sitting. He took tea and 
toast, or a little well-baked bread, early in the evening, con- 
versed with or read to his family when there were no 
guests, and usually, whether there was company or not, 
retired for the night at about nine o'clock. 

So carefully did Washington manage his farms, that they 
became very productive. His chief crops were wheat and 
tobacco, and these were very large — so large that vessels 
that came up the Potomac took the tobacco and flour 
directly from his own wharf, a little below his deer-park, in 
front of his mansion, and carried them to England or the 
West Indies. So noted were these products for their 
quality, and so faithfully were they put up, that any barrel 
of flour bearing the brand of " George Washington, 
Mount Vernon," was exempted from the customary 
inspection in the British West India ports. 

Upon the spot where that old wharf once stood, at the 
foot of a shaded ravine scooped from the high bank of the 
Potomac, through which flows a clear stream from a spring, 
is a rickety modern structure, placed there for the accom- 

F f 2 



220 GEORGE MASON, OF GUNSTON HALL. 

modation of visitors to Mount Vernon, who are conveyed 
thither by a steamboat twice a week. There may be seen 
the same ravine, the same broad river, the same pleasant 
shores of Maryland beyond ; but, instead of the barrels of 
flour, the quintals of fish and the hogsheads of tobacco 
which appeared there in Washington's time, well-dressed 
men and women — true pilgrims to a hallowed shrine, or 
mere idle gazers upon the burial-place of a great man — 
throng that wharf as they arrive and depart on their errands 
of patriotism or of curiosity. 




MOUNT VERNON LANDING-WHARF. 



Among those who came to Mount Vernon to consult with 
Washington respecting public affairs, was his neighbour and 
friend of Gunston Hall, George Mason. He was six years 
older than Washington, of large, sinewy frame, an active 
step and gait, locks of raven blackness, a dark complexion, 
and a grave countenance, which was lighted up by a black 
eye, whose glance was felt with power by those upon whom 
it chanced to fall. He was one of the most methodical of 
men, and most extensive of the Virginia planters at that 
time ; and, like Washington from Mount Vernon, shipped 



WASHINGTON 6- THE NEIGHBOURING CHURCHES. 221 

his crops from his own wharf, near his elegant mansion of 
Gunston Hall. He was proud, yet extremely courteous; 
and while no man could be a warmer and more faithful 
friend than he, his bearing was such as to excite admiration 
rather than love. His strong mind was thoroughly culti- 
vated, and he was conversant with the minute particulars 
of English general history, and especially with the political 
history of the English Empire. His mind was quick to 
perceive, his judgment equally quick to analyze and 
arrange ; and these qualities made him a most skilful 
statesman. In council he was eminently wise ; in debate 
he was distinguished for extraordinary ability ; and as a 
political writer, he was without a peer in his country, when 
the rising dispute with Great Britain was occupying the 
thoughts of men in both hemispheres. Such was the man 
with whom, at Mount Vernon and at Gunston Hall, Wash- 
ington held close conference for many years, while the flame 
of the Revolution was slowly kindling. 

The storm of the Stamp Act season passed by, but it 
was succeeded by many others. In the intervals Wash- 
ington was engaged in agricultural pursuits at Mount 
Vernon, and the pleasures of social life. In all the public 
affairs of his neighbourhood he was an active participant ; 
and as early as 1765, the year when the Stamp Act became 
a law, he was a vestryman of both Truro and Fairfax 
parishes, in which Pohick in the country, and Christ Church 
in Alexandria, were the respective places of worship. In 
that year his name is appended to a declaration, with 
others, that he would " be conformable to the Doctrines and 
Discipline of the Church of England, as by law established." 
With his name appear those of George Mason, George 
William Fairfax, Edward Payne, Captain Charles Broad- 
water, and more than twenty others. 

During the earlier years of his married life, Washington 



222 GIVES MUCH DETAIL TO CHURCH MANAGEMENT. 

attended Pohick Church, seven miles from Mount Vernon, 
more frequently than any other. The first church of that 
name was a frame building, and stood on the south side of 
Pohick Creek, about two miles from the present edifice. 
About the year i 764 it became so dilapidated as to be no 
longer fit for use. The parishioners were called together 
to consult upon the erection of a new one. Among those 
assembled was Washington, and the father of George 
Mason, then advanced in years and greatly respected. 
When the question of the location of the new church came 
up for consideration, there was a difference of opinion. 
Mr. Mason was in favour of the old site, and Washington 
was opposed to it. Mr. Mason made a pathetic appeal in 
favour of the old site, pleading that there was the spot 
where their fathers had worshipped, and it was consecrated 
by their graves which surrounded it. Washington and 
others took the ground that the spot was far less convenient 
for the parish than a more central one. The subject took 
a shape that required more reflection, and a second meeting 
was called. Meanwhile Washington made a careful survey 
of the whole neighbourhood, marking the place of every 
house and the relative distances on a distinct map. 
When the second meeting was held, Mason again appealed 
to the sympathies of the people, when Washington appealed 
to their common sense, by simply presenting his map, and 
explaining it in a few words. His almost mute argument 
prevailed, and the site of the present church was selected. 

Preparations were now made for the erection of the new 
church, but it was not completed until the year 1773. 
Washington drew the ground-plan and elevation of the 
building for the use of the architect. They are very neatly 
sketched with China ink upon good drawing-paper, and 
occupy a space thirteen by fifteen inches square. 

Of the ministers who officiated at Pohick, there were 



REVS. L. MASSE Y & M. L. WEE MS GREAT FRIENDS. 223 

none more beloved than the Rev. Lee Massey. He was 
the companion of Washington from his youth ; at his solici- 
tation, and that of Mason, Fairfax, M'Carty, Chichester, 
and others of that parish, he was induced to relinquish the 
profession of the law, study divinity, and become their 
pastor. His speech becoming impaired by the loss of his 
front teeth, he left the pulpit, and studied medicine as a 
means of affording relief to the poor. 

Another clergyman who officiated occasionally at Pohick 
church, after the regular stated services of the Church of 
England had ceased there, was the eccentric Mason L. 
Weems, the earliest biographer of Washington. The style 
of that biography was so attractive to the uncultivated 
readers of his day, that it passed through some forty 
editions, and even now it finds a sale. His character 
appears to have been a curious compound of seriousness 
and levity, truthfulness and exaggeration, reverence and 
profanity. He was an itinerant in every sense of the word. 
He was a man of considerable attainments as a scholar, 
physician, and divine ; and his benevolence was unbounded. 
When a boy of fourteen years, he was found at night 
teaching half-clad, half-fed children, who gathered eagerly 
around him • and all through life he was ready to share a 
crust with the unfortunate. He used wit and humour freely 
on all occasions. " Whether in private or public, in prayers 
or preaching," says Bishop Meade, " it was impossible that 
either the young or old, the grave or the gay, could keep 
their risible faculties from violent agitation." He would 
pray with the negro servants at night, and fiddle for them 
by the roadside by day. For many years he was a travel- 
ling bookseller, preaching when invited, haranguing the 
people at courts, fairs, and other public gatherings, and 
selling the Bible out of one hand and Paine's "Age of 
Reason" out of the other, alleging, as an excuse for the 



224 ATTENDS CHRIST CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA. 

latter performance, that he always carried the antidote with 
the poison. 1 His fund of anecdote was inexhaustible ; and 
after giving a promiscuous audience the highest entertain- 
ment of fun, he found them in good mood to purchase his 
books. At Mount Vernon he was always a welcome guest, 
for Washington loved his goodness of heart, and overlooked 
his foibles. Mr. Weems died at Beaufort, South Carolina, 
in May, 1825, at an advanced age. 

Benson Lossing, in his admirable volume on " Mount 
Vernon and its Associations," thus describes the country 
churches in which Washington habitually worshipped when 
in the neighbourhood : — 



" After the Revolution, for reasons not clearly seen, 
Washington attended Christ Church at Alexandria (of 
which he was a vestryman) instead of Pohick, others of the 
latter parish followed, and after a while regular services 
ceased in that part of the country. Washington owned 

a pew in Christ 
Church from the 
establishment in 
1 764, and occupied 
it constantly after 
1873, until his 
_ death. Some of 
his name have held 
possession of it 
ever since. Judge 
Bushrod Wash- 
ington 2 succeeded 
the general in its occupancy; then his nephew, John A. 
Washington, the father of the late proprietor of Mount 

1 " Portrait of Mason L. Weems," p. 76. 2 " Christ Church, Alex- 
andria," p. 77. 




CHRIST CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA. 



ROHICK CHURCH, NEAR MOUNT VERNON. 225 



Vernon ; and lastly that proprietor himself. Christ Church, 
at Alexandria, was finished in 1773, and Washington paid 
the highest price for a pew in it. 

I visited Pohick Church a few years ago, and found it 
falling rapidly into decay. It stands upon an eminence 
north of Pohick Creek, on the border of a forest that ex- 
tends almost uninterruptedly to Mount Vernon. Around it 
are the ancient oaks of the primaeval woods, interspersed 
with chestnuts and pines. It was just at twilight when I 
reached the old fane, and after making a sketch of it I 




'. , ■ \ "Six? 



POHICK CHURCH IN 1S5S. 

passed on to seek lodgings for the night. The next day 
was the Sabbath, and being informed that a Methodist 
meeting was to be held in the church, I repaired thither at 
the usual hour, and took a seat in Washington's pew, near 
the pulpit. There I awaited the slow gathering of the little 
auditory. When all had assembled, men and women and 
children, white and black, the whole congregation numbered 
only twenty-one persons. I could not refrain from drawing 
a parallel with the scenes of other days under that venerated 

G g 



226 LOSSING'S VISIT TO POHICK CHURCH IN 1858. 



roof, when some of the noblest of Virginia's aristocracy 
worshipped there, while clergymen, in surplice and gown, 
performed the solemn and impressive ritual of the Church 
of England. Now, a young man, with nothing to dis- 
tinguish him from other men but a white cravat, stood as 
teacher within the old chancel by the side of the ancient 
communion table. He talked sweetly of Christian charity : 

" Oh, the rarity 
Of Christian charity," 

and asked the little company to join with him in singing 
the hymn — 

" Come, Holy Spirit ! Heavenly Dove ! " 

When the service was over, I made note with pen and 
pencil of all within. It was a melancholy task, for decay 
with its busy fingers was at work all around me, making 
sure prophecies of the speedy desolation of a building 
hallowed by association with the be- 
loved Washington. Upon the wall, back 
of the chancel, were still inscribed the 
Law, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, 
upon which the eyes of Washington and 
his friends had rested a thousand times. 
A large proportion of the panes of glass 
were broken from the windows, admit- 
ting freely the wind and the rain, the 
bats and the birds. The elaborately 
wrought pulpit, placed by itself on one 
side of the church, was sadly marred by 
desecrating hands. Under its sounding- 
board a swallow had built her nest, and upon the book- 
ledge the fowls of the air had evidently perched. These 
things brought to memory the words of the "sweet singer 




ITI.I'IT IN POHICK CHURCH. 



MARTHA WASHINGTON'S CHILDREN. 227 

of Israel " — " Yea, the sparrow has found a home, and the 
swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, 
even Thine altar, O Lord of Hosts ! " 

Field had a pleasant countenance and fine portly figure. 
He was, on the whole, rather fat, and loved his ease. 
" When at Centreville, on the eastern shore of Maryland, 
in 1798," says Rembrandt Peale in a letter to a friend, 
" Field and I took a walk into the country, after a rain. 
A wide puddle of water covered the road beyond the 
fence on both sides. I climbed the fence and walked 
round, but Field, fat and lazy, in good humour paid an old 
negro to carry him on his shoulders over the water. In the 
middle of it, Field became so convulsed with laughter that 
he nearly shook himself off the old man's back." 

Field went to Canada, studied theology a little, was 
ordained a priest of the Established Church, and became a 
bishop. 

A shadow fell upon Mount Vernon in the spring of 
1773. No child had blessed the union of Washington and 
his wife, and her two children received the most tender 
parental care and solicitude from their step-father. He 
appeared to love them as his own. Martha was a sweet 
girl of gentle temper, graceful form, winning ways, and so 
much a brunette that she was called " the dark lady." Just 
as she was blooming into womanhood, pulmonary consump- 
tion laid its withering hand upon her. For several months her 
strength had been failing, and letters filled with expressions 
of anxiety went frequently from her mother to Washington, 
who was engaged in his duties in the House of Burgesses at 
Williamsburg. At length a most alarming letter reached 
him. He had just made arrangements to accompany Lord 
Dunmore, the Governor, on a long tour of observation west 
of the mountains, but he hastened to Mount Vernon. He 
found the dear child in the last moments of earthly life. 

G g 2 




228 



DEATH OF HER YOUTHFUL DAUGHTER. 



His manly spirit was bowed with grief, and with deep feeling 
he knelt at the side of her bed and prayed most earnestly 
for her recovery. Upon the wings of that holy prayer her 
spirit ascended, and when he arose and looked upon her 
pale and placid face, death had set its seal there. She 
expired on the 19th of June, when in the seventeenth year 
of her age. Her departure left a great void in the heart of 
the mother, and Washington remained for some time at 
Mount Vernon, in seclusion, to console his afflicted wife, 
instead of taking the contemplated journey with the 
Governor. 

Darker and darker grew the clouds of war ; and during 
more than seven years Washington visited his pleasant 
home upon the Potomac but once, and then only for three 
days and nights. Mrs. Washington spent the winter in 
camp with her husband, and many are the traditions con- 
cerning her beauty, gentleness, simplicity, and industry, 
which yet linger around the winter-quarters of the venerated 
commander-in-chief of the armies of the Revolution. For 
many long years she was remembered with affection by the 
dwellers at Cambridge, Morristown, Valley Forge, Newburgh, 
and New Windsor. When, on each returning spring, she 
departed for her home on the Potomac, the blessings of 
thousands — soldiers and citizens — went with her, for she 
was truly loved by all. 

Pleasant would it be to read the scores of letters written 
by Washington to his charming wife during all that cam- 
paigning period and his subsequent services in civil life. 
That pleasure can never be enjoyed. Only one letter to 
her — the message informing her of his appointment to the 
command of the army — is known to be in existence, and 
that, with one to her son on the same subject, written 
on the following day, had prior to the war with the 
South, been carefully preserved at Arlington House. Mrs. 



MARTHA DESTROYS HER HUSBAND'S LETTERS. 229 

Washington, in obedience to his wish, destroyed all his 
other letters to herself shortly before her death. 

There are few anecdotes of his private life. We know 
little of him in those hours when he threw off the cares of 
state or generalship, and talked and acted as other men. 
We have caught impressions of him from his grave 
countenance in pictures, and from the ponderous tomes that 
tell of plans and battles, and sieges and marches, until 
there are many into whose minds it never entered that he 
could smile and have his hours of sportive gaiety. 

The want of more detail of Washington's life is especially 
lamentable ; this deficiency, however, corresponds with 
other of the world's greatest men The private life of 
that glorious man was as free from stain as his public 
life was surpassingly admirable. They who cherish the 
memory of greatness that had no alliance with goodness 
may well be rejoiced that nothing remains of it but the 
record of the actions that have won for it its name. 
They may well rejoice at the silence of history, fearful that 
its further story, had it one to tell, would mar the fascinating 
and deceptive illusion. But the lovers of Washington could 
gain from every event of his life only fresh evidences 
of his exalted purity, his ennobling sense of right, his 
disinterested self-sacrifice. And how eagerly every little 
anecdote of his boyhood or manly relaxation has been 
seized upon and treasured up ! How many children have 
been stimulated to inflexible truth, in the face of suffering 
by the story that is told of him in his youth — every one knows 
it — when he injured with his hatchet one of his father's 
favourite trees ; yet told the truth about it in the face of 
expected punishment. What a bearing this little anecdote 
has exerted over many minds, giving a colouring to the 
impressions of his whole after and remarkable life ! 

There was a sentiment about Mount Vernon from the 



230 NAMING MOUA T VERNON AFTER ADMIRAL VERNON 

beginning. Lawrence Washington, when he purchased the 
estate, chose to name it after Admiral Vernon, under whom 
he had served at Carthagena — a significant fancy, corre- 
sponding well with a certain vein which one discovers early 
in the study of Washington's turn of mind, as displayed in 
letters and journals written long before he became famous. 
The Washingtons were, in those dim, distant days, people 
of thought, feeling, and a high sense of honour. It was not 
without purpose that Mrs. Washington, while her gallant sons 
yet stood boys at her knee, imbued them with the calm and 
noble sentiments of Sir Matthew Hale. Their entrance into 
active life was guarded on all sides by worthy and patriotic 
thoughts, planted by that wise mother as sentinels against 
all insidious approaches of evil. Mount Vernon became to 
Lawrence the memorial of a gallant sailor who had been a 
hero to him, both by public conduct and private kindness ; 
and George, then a boy, and a frequent inmate of his 
brother's family, had thus a domestic example, both kindly 
and dignified, in his elder brother's respect and love for his 
old commander. When he afterwards, as a direct con- 
sequence of his affectionate care, excellent judgment, and 
already matured integrity, before he was of age, received 
this very Mount Vernon as a legacy from his brother, who 
died early, he thought not of changing the name first 
bestowed by peculiar and individual feeling, but set himself 
about adorning the place, adding to its area by gradual 
purchases, and bringing up the whole towards his own ideal 
of what a rural property ought to be. From that day to 
the day of his death his choicest pleasure was the care of 
those acres — 1300 in number ultimately — of which the more 
personal and interesting 200, including those on which stand 
the mansion and offices, and those made priceless by the 
presence of sacred dust never to be disturbed, have through 
a public subscription become the property of the nation. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON PARKE CUST1S. 231 

George Washington Parke Custis, the last survivor of 
Washington's family, died at Arlington, Va, Saturday 
morning, October 10th, 1857. He was born April 30th, 
1 78 1. His father, Colonel John Parke Custis (a son of 
Mrs. Washington by her first husband), dying when Mr. 
Custis was quite young, he was brought up at Mount 
Vernon in the family of General Washington. 

At the time of his death it was said of him that the 
whole country knew him, and his patriotism will long 
be remembered. Closely allied to the Washington family, 
fond of calling himself the child of Mount Vernon, he was 
never so much in his element as when he was talking or 
writing of the Great Chief and the men and times of the 
Revolution. As he said of himself once, ' His was the 
destiny of no common man,' for he had been fondled on the 
knee of the father of his country, and received from him the 
kindness of a parent. He repaid that care and affection 
with filial devotion, and to the day of his death all the 
recollections of his life centred around, or radiated from, the 
time when he was one of Washington's family. He lived to 
a good old age, retaining his mental faculties to the last. 
Though Mr. Custis was never in public life, he was, in his 
younger days, an eloquent and effective speaker, and had a 
fondness for oratory as long as he was able to gratify those 
who constantly called on him to make public addresses. 

Sharpies appears to have been taken into counsel at 
Mount Vernon as to some details of tree and shrub plant- 
ing, some alterations in the laying out done during the 
period of Washington's occupation in the camp being 
deemed advisable. It seems that he had delighted the 
General by a plan he had drawn of the immediate sur- 
roundings of the house, showing the roads and paths as 
laid out, and with lines marking suggested changes. All 
of these were approved, and orders went forth for an 



232 SHARPLES AN IMPROVER OF MOUNT VERNON. 

immediate conformity thereto, not, however, without much 
opposition from a veteran coloured gentleman, who, during 
his master's absence, had usurped a good deal of power, 
and which he had in some degree retained, and was there- 
fore not inclined to resign without a struggle. Every 
innovation was opposed : one path was " too close to the 
steep," and "would be washed away first heavy rain;" 
another would lay bare the roots of favourite trees ; while 
the stopping existing paths and laying same down to grass 
was not to be endured, seeing the trouble they had cost in 
the making. The veteran darkey had a great notion that 
everything should be straight as an arrow — curves were 
abominations. Sharpies suggested a series of terraces 
leading down to the landing-stage on the river's edge as a 
substitute for a continuous steep path. This, however, was 
an outrage on his every notion of landscape-gardening, and 
for quietude sake had to be abandoned. For several years 
the General had been gradually withdrawing from the 
culture of tobacco, which as owner he saw would pauperize 
land unless some system of manuring could at reasonable 
cost be introduced to stay the exhaustion. His friend 
Cary's agency, so far as it depended on tobacco, had 
become a sorry affair, and Indian corn had not then been 
exported in any but small quantities. He, however, busied 
himself in substituting it and wheat, and introducing the 
then new method of crop rotation. 

In their daily walks on the estate, Washington dwelt with 
evident delight on the happy time passed there with La 
Fayette, than whom a truer republican never existed. As 
Washington expressed himself: " He indeed was gold from 
the mine, and the head of Liberty was on the ingot, without 
passing through the mint of circumstances. He had the 
common-sense 'democracy' — the true zeal for the equality 
of men — the supremacy of the laws and the happiness of 



SITAE PLES IN A COTTAGE ON THE ESTATE. 233 



the people." It was thus in his youth, when he was among 
the most cherished and welcomed of all that the Old World 
sent out. He learned the value of republicanism by being 
the friend of Washington, that man who never trusted a 
theory for its gloss, but tried it by its truth. Washington 
is said to have never really loved but one man — such 
was his caution and reserve — and that man was La 
Fayette. This is an unjust saying. He was gratefully 
attached to his friend Robert Cary, and it is not too much 
to say that Sharpies, as his accredited representative, had 
deservedly engaged his affection. He is known to have 
been a man of much culture. The historian Dunlap tells 
us this, as also that his gift of conversation was remarkable. 
We have from his own written account how the Chief 
revelled in their relation. The artist did not sleep in the 
house at Mount Vernon, which was very limited in accommo- 
dation. On arrival there he had been "billeted," as the 
Chief termed it, at a cottage of one of the house servants 
near at hand, a coloured man, who had a wife and four 
little darkies. This cottage would appear to have been 
generally availed of on occasions of overflow, not un- 
frequent. The room dedicated was "remarkably clean, but 
very hot when the sun's rays poured upon it ;" and " I 
ascertained from my sable hostess that Lady Washington 
had made frequent visits to see that all was in order and 
nicely kept. I take all my meals with the Chief at Mount 
Vernon ; they are most elegantly served, but without the 
least profusion, and the attendance is of military precision. 
I observed that we never partook of food without the 
General offering grace to the Giver, so also at the close of 
every repast." 

La Fayette was no less the child of France than of 
America. He was with his own country in all her vicissi- 
tudes, ever practical and right — deserting no principle, but 

h h 



234 LAFAYETTE A TRUE REPUBLICAN. 



yielding always the shadow when by such concession the 
substance could be gained — struggling, and striving, and 
combating by voice and sword, and best of all, by example, 
for the life of republicanism in France. This he never 
deserted, and though suspected and denounced, he never 
while he lived, ceased to be the republican. 

It was forcibly stated, in an article published in Hunt's 
Merchant's Magazine in 1847, that by every variety of com- 
mentary has almost every fibre of the character of General 
George Washington been illustrated. His military talent 
has, in all its phases, been brought to the notice of the 
world — weighed, analyzed, reviewed — until it has come out 
of the fierce ordeal, established as of the very first order 
of judgment, energy, bravery. His reputation as a states- 
man has been blazoned abroad with a vigour derived alike 
from the truth and its forcible use. Men have honoured 
themselves by giving the power of their intellect to the 
history of his devotion to his country. All his movements 
in war, all his acts in the Cabinet, are on record ; and 
he is one of the very few men that ever trod the earth of 
whose reputation it is safe that the knowledge of it should 
be thorough. 

But George Washington was a great man in other 
departments of life than those blended with the army and 
the State ; and it is to a feature in his character, less 
prominently before the world, but one of the most valuable, 
of which we should speak in this article. It is the order, 
regularity, method, punctualitv, and above all the rectitude — 
the unsullied and unchangeable devotion to his engage- 
ments, which distinguished him, and which, combined, are 
the very qualities that make up the merchant. In all these 
the example of Washington may fittingly be urged upon 
the consideration of the merchants of the Union. The old 
merchants of the colonies were the very men who perilled 



"MERCHANTS MAGAZINE" ON WASHINGTON. 235 

the most in arraying themselves on the side of a separation 
from England. Theirs was no cheap patriotism — no offering 
of words, but the severing of a profitable mercantile 
connection — the riving asunder of relations that involved 
sacrifices alike keen and costly. From among those 
merchants some of the most valued and useful of the 
officers and soldiers of the Revolution were taken, and they 
proved themselves as active in the trade of war, as they had 
ever been vigilant in the war of trade. 

The education of Washington was purely a practical one. 
All that he added to this was the result of efforts in maturer 
life, generally made as events demonstrated the particular 
necessity of the study. This was a business foundation 
early laid ; and though at a time of life when boyhood is 
usually in its recklessness, the various parts of a business 
education were thoroughly built up in his character. 

At the age of thirteen he studied the intricate forms of 
business with an ardour which showed what was in him — 
with a method which demonstrated how that was to be 
developed. He copied out bills of exchange, notes of hand, 
bills of sale receipts, and all the varieties of the class, which 
he denominated " Forms of Writing," and these are remark- 
able for the precision and the elegance with which they are 
copied. His manuscripts even then were of the utmost 
neatness and uniformity, the diagrams always beautiful, 
the columns and tables of figures exact, and in unstained 
and unblotted order. Old Tim Linkinwater would have 
looked most approvingly over his work, and admitted 
" George " to the awful books of " Cheeryble Brothers." 
His excellent historian, Mr. Sparks, who has given us that 
rarest of all books, a reliable biography, remarks that these 
excellent habits of method and order thus early formed 
continued through life. His business papers, ledgers, day- 
books, in which none wrote but himself, were models of 

h h 2 



236 "MERCHANTS MAGAZINE" ON WASHINGTON. 

exactness. The description of them might apply to those 
of the most careful bookkeeper in our metropolis. Every 
fact had its place, and was recorded in a plain, clear hand- 
writing, and there was neither interlineation, blot, or 
blemish. Frank Osbaldistone's father could have asked no 
more. Is it any wonder that with such ideas of what the 
methods di a business man should be, we should find as one 
of his " Rules of Behaviour " — a code of laws drawn up for 
his own government, when at the immature age to which we 
have already referred, and wonderful in their fitness — the 
following : — 

"12th. Let your discourse with men of business be 
short and comprehensive." 

In the 46th, "Undertake not what you cannot perform, 
but be careful to keep your promise." 

These rules — this manifestation of a " business talent " — 
were not merely the development of some temporary purpose, 
but firmly fastened rules of life, which were made to mould 
his life, and their value to him soon became manifest. He 
left school at the age of sixteen ; and such was his reputa- 
tion for probity and habits of business — for diligence and 
habits of despatch — that several eminent Virginia gentlemen 
were anxious to secure his services ; and he soon became 
busied in laborious duties, the cares of which found an 
agreeable relief by the society of his cherished brother 
Lawrence, at Mount Vernon — a name whose associations 
were thereafter to be rendered so glorious. With that 
brother, in 1751, he left the soil of his country for the first 
and last time, and made a visit of four months to the West 
Indies. Throughout all this tour the traits of character of 
which this article is particularly designed to speak were 
constantly manifesting themselves. He daily copied the 
log-book, noted everything, looked at everything, and was 
never idle. When at Barbadoes, the commerce of the island 



WASHINGTON'S EXAMINATION OF ACCOUNTS. 



237 



was one of the subjects concerning which he made inves- 
tigation, and about which he made appropriate records in 
his journal. 

The time soon came for him to be the actor in the 
greater scenes of life, and were it within the design of this 
article to follow his steady advance from one station of 
usefulness and honour to another, it would only be to point 
to the same unchanging rectitude and fidelity to every 
engagement— the same precise order— the same undeviating 
exactness. The boy who had with such care collated and 
prepared the details of an exercise at school, brought into 
like order the statistics necessary to be studied before a 
campaign could be wisely commenced. Everything that 
could illustrate the duty of the soldier — the province of the 
commander — the plan of attack or defence— the topography 
of the field of battle — was, by his indomitable industry, his 
steadfast method, brought into a condensed form, that it 
might be easily grasped by the mind— that " the business " 
of the war might be well done. 

Nor was it in war alone that the man of order developed 
himself. We quote in full what Mr. Sparks says upon the 
subject of his conduct in this respect when President of the 
United States : — 

" During the Presidency it was likewise his custom to 
subject the treasury reports and accompanying documents 
to the process of titular condensation with a vast expenditure 
of labour and patience ; but it enabled him to grasp and 
retain in their order a series of isolated facts, and the results 
of a complicated mass of figures, which could never have 
been mastered so effectually by any other mode of approach- 
ing them." 

From 1759 to 1 764 Washington was, in some measure, 

an acting merchant ; for in that calmest period of his life 

after the brief, but brilliant episode of the Braddock cam- 



238 WASHINGTON'S EXAMINATION OF ACCOUNTS. 

paign, most honourable to himself, however disastrous to 
one whose name was more prominent, and before the great 
drama of the Revolution — he regularly exported to London 
the product of his large estate on the Potomac. The ship- 
ments were made in his own name, and to his correspon- 
dents in Bristol and Liverpool, to which places his tobacco 
was consigned. Are there none of these precious bills of 
lading yet in existence ? They would be valued by many 
of us, on this side of the water, at least, as evidences of the 
attention which he gave to all his business. In return for 
the articles exported, it was his custom, twice in each year, 
to import, at that period, from London, the goods which he 
desired to use ; and Mr. Sparks thus delineates how accu- 
rately he fulfilled his duties as an importer: — " He required 
his agent to send him, in addition to a general bill of the 
whole, the original vouchers of the shopkeepers and 
mechanics from whom purchases had been made. So 
particular was he in these concerns, that he recorded with 
his own hand, in books prepared for the purpose, all the 
long lists of orders and copies of the multifarious receipts 
from the different merchants and tradesmen who had sup- 
plied the goods. In this way he kept a perfect oversight 
of the business ; ascertained the prices ; could detect any 
imposition, mismanagement, or carelessness, and tell when 
any advantage was taken of him ; of which, if he discovered 
any, he did not fail to remind his correspondents." 

And all this, we must remember, was while he had the 
charge of the large estate of Mount Vernon, and while he 
was dispensing a large and generous hospitality. 

When the French war had ended, it became his duty to 
attend to the settlement of the complicated military accounts 
of the colony of Virginia, a task arduous enough, but, like 
all the other duties of his life, faithfully performed. 

The war of the Revolution left him no leisure for personal 



HIS BUSINESS ABILITY SHOWN IN HIS WILL. 239 

attendance on his private business, but yet it was never 
neglected. He could not be personally present ; but while 
the noises of the camp, the preparations for battle, the 
deliberations of councils were all shared in to the utmost, 
his correspondence about his home affairs was as thorough 
and minute as though he had been an absentee of leisure. 

His accounts, while engaged in the service of his 
country, were so accurately kept, that to this hour they are 
an example held up before the nation. His habits of 
business enabled him, amidst the tumult of the Revolution 
— its fierce contests, its sufferings and disorders — to so 
methodize and record all the business incidents of each 
day that the end of the war found him prepared to lay 
before Congress an exact statement of his expenditure. 
There was about him a pervading principle of order, not of 
a lifeless, sluggish caste, but life-like and energetic ; so 
that, while everything was well done, it was done in time 
and in earnest. 

Let any one read his will, and they will rise up from the 
perusal with the conviction that a more thorough man of 
business never lived. There have been many documents 
of a similar kind, drawn up with wonderful care and labour, 
and at vast remuneration, by gentlemen learned in the law, 
but none where every incident is so carefully attended to — 
not in the spirit of fearfulness of flaws and evasions, and all 
the thousand munitions of attack to which they resort who 
"break" wills — but in the orderly, sound, business-like 
manner in which a Gresham might have written his projec- 
tion of an exchange. \ 

But we need point to no isolated instance. His whole 
life establishes the fact that a more perfect man of business 
never lived than George Washington. 

Valueless, indeed, in the comparison, had they stood 
alone, would all this method and order and industry be — a 



2 4 o JEFFERSON'S TESTIMONY TO HIS CHARACTER. 

merchant may have all these, and yet be but sagacious, 
and — unprincipled ; but of this man a nobler record is left 
to us. I quote only what Thomas Jefferson has said, and 
he spoke certainly with no improper bias: — " HIS 
INTEGRITY WAS MOST PURE." 

To the merchant of the United States the example of 
Pater Patrice has not been, and will not be lost. So prompt 
to do — so exact in doing — so wise to know what was to be 
done — so prudent as to what should not be done — such 
unsullied honesty — such pure integrity. These are the 
qualities that, combined, make up the good and great 
merchant ; and as they were eminent in George Washington, 
may he not be claimed as well by the merchants as by the 
soldiers, or farmers, or statesmen ? 

This same writer thus expressed himself regarding the 
Sharpies Washington portraits : — ■ 

" Criticism of these noble portraits may be said to be 
exhausted ; their excellence is on a par with their national 
importance, and this is beyond estimate. It is not easy to 
set aside portraits in sight of which the nation has been 
built up ; time alone, therefore, will yield the place they 
must eventually take relatively with the Stuarts. No one 
will deny the Sharpies revelation, it is of incomparably 
more force and strength, and must rank in the future as 
conveying more powerfully the dignity and greatness of our 
Chief. Well may the Washington family have commended 
these portraits as ' by far the most truthful likenesses of 
Washington ever taken :' a conviction enforced on all who 
behold them, so far as innate feeling can entertain it." 




MRS. ROBERT FULTON, 

Niece of Chancel] : : Livingstone. 



inced by the Autotype Company. London, From the original Oil Painting by James Sharpies 




CHAPTER XII. 

Object of the Memorials — Washington joins Braddock — Early discouragements — 
Mary Phillipse — Rochambeau at Mount Vernon — English description of 
Washington — Rebukes Lund Washington — Labour in founding the City of 
Washington — Visits his mother at Fredericksburg — Declines State money 
aid — Course of life at Mount Vernon — Organization of Congress — 
Washington elected President — Proceeds to New York — Ovations en route — 
Sworn in as President — Seat of Government removed to Philadelphia — 
The Philadelphia Mansion — Washington's English carriage described — 
also his presentation China — Equipages and plate described — Loss of 
valuable correspondence between Sharpies and Robert Fulton greatly to be 
deplored — Eventful occurrences of 1794 and 1795 — Jefferson's retirement — 
and requested resumption of office — Vaughan, a London merchant, presents 
chimney-piece at Mount Vernon. 

The design of this volume being to place before the world 
much deeply interesting matter in the lives of Washington 
and his mother never before made known, and which the 
writer feels will help to make valuable history, as additional 
evidences of the grandeur of their characters, it has been a 
necessitous duty to weave into the narrative of these impor- 
tant revelations much that has come down through the 
biographies by the many writers honoured in contributing 
each a stone towards building up the edifice of Washington's 
life. So far as the main facts are concerned, much is found 
to be a repetition of preceding writers. To such an extent 
is this with records of the Great Patriot's life, as to render 
it frequently difficult to trace and quote the original author. 
Without these narratives, however, his work would be even 
less connected than he fears it will with such helps prove. 
Far be it from the writer's wish to adopt as original that 
which has emanated from others. It is, however, difficult 
to say who was the author of much even of the most 
interesting and ably recorded materials forming the life of 

I i 



242 GRATIFICATION IN PRESENTING MARTS PORTRAIT. 

Washington. The writer of this volume aspires to no merit 
whatever in his work. His duty has been to present facts 
coming down through one deservedly honoured in Wash- 
ington's confidence, and to combine with this labour of 
love the high privilege of gratifying his readers in possessing 
them with the only known portrait of Mary Washington. 
In itself, this is enough ; apology for unworthy matter of 
the surrounding frame will not be required. The additional 
honour of giving through this volume worthily executed 
presentments of the Sharpies portraits of Washington 
himself, his wife, and the many remarkable women whose 
characteristics, beauty, and grace throw such additional 
charms on the eventful period and life of him of undying 
fame, will, he feels, be allowed to atone for his own short- 
comings in these Memorials. 

Examination of Cary's papers proves that, like Martha 
Washington, Cary had been requested to destroy all letters 
having reference to the events in which he had so faithfully 
served his friend. These letters were very numerous. The 
worthy London merchant construed the command more 
literally than was necessary. Every scrap of his own 
having reference to the Patriot is couched in terms of 
deepest affection and respect. One passage fairly illus- 
trates all — thus : " Who can fail to see in Washington 
a creation vouchsafed for purposes which only future 
generations can realize. May not the follies of the old 
world at some distant day inter all the pride of its power 
and the pomp of its civilization, and may not human nature 
find her destined renovation in the Empire created by 
Washington ! May not the glory of past great ones prove 
to be legendary traditions ! The monumental record of 
natural rise and natural ruin proclaims that no splendour of 
achievement, no solidity of success, can ensure to Empire 
the permanence of its possession. Troy thought so once, 



WASHINGTON INVITED TO ALEXANDRIA. 243 

yet the land of Priam lives only in song ! Thebes thought 
so once, yet her hundred gates have crumbled, and her 
tombs are as the dust they were destined to commemorate. 
So thought Palmyra! Where is she? So thought 
Demosthenes and the Spartans, but Leonidas is trampled 
by the timid slave. The rays of their glory are as if they 
never had been, and the island that was then a mere speck, 
rude and neglected in the barren ocean, now rivals all the 
wealth of their commerce, the glory of their names, the 
fame of their philosophy, the eloquence of their senate, and 
the inspiration of their bards." 

During the war between the French and English, that 
commenced in 1755, when Braddock served as commander- 
in-chief of the British forces in America, until the close of 
the campaign of 1758, Washington was almost continually in 
the public service. He had been promoted to colonel in 1 754, 
but on account of new military arrangements by a narrow- 
minded governor he had left the service with disgust, and 
retired to Mount Vernon, with a determination to spend his 
life there in his loved pursuits of agriculture. 

General Braddock came to America in 1758 to arrange a 
campaign against the French. Braddock soon heard 
encomiums of the character of Colonel Washington, and 
invited him to Alexandria. Mount Vernon was little more 
than an hour's ride distant, and Washington's military 
ardour was aroused to obey the summons. From Mount 
Vernon he looked upon the ships-of-war on the bosom of 
the Potomac that bore Braddock and his troops, and the 
thought that close to his dwelling preparations were in 
progress for a brilliant campaign, under the command of an 
experienced general of the British army, stirred the depths 
of his soul, and made him yearn to go again to the field. 

At Jonathan Carey's residence, Braddock's headquarters, 
the young provincial colonel and the veteran general 

I i 2 



A 1 J :^ <.:z.:> , 



244 WASHINGTON ON THE FIELD OF MONONGAHELA. 

first met, at the close of March. Carey's was then 
the finest house in Alexandria, surrounded by a noble 
lawn that was shaded by lofty forest trees, and its gardens 
extending down a gentle slope to the shore of the 
Potomac. Now it stands within the city, hemmed in by 
buildings and paved streets, a conversion natural to New 
World cities. The convention of governors met in it in 
April, and there the ensuing campaign was planned. 

Braddock invited Washington to join his military family, 
as aide, with the rank he had lately borne. The mother of 
the young colonel hastened to Mount Vernon to persuade 
him not to accept it. She urged the claims - of his and 
her own affairs upon his attention, as strong reasons for 
him not to enter the army again, and for two days she held 
his decision in abeyance, for filial obedience was one of the 
strongest sentiments of his nature. But it was not strong 
enough to restrain him on this occasion — or rather God's 
will must be obeyed — and he left Mount Vernon for Alex- 
andria, after her departure for the Rappahannock, and was 
welcomed into Braddock's family with joy by Captains Orme 
and Morris. 

On the 9th of July following, we behold him upon the 
bloody field of the Monongahela, shielded by God's provi- 
dence, untouched by ball or bayonet, arrow or javelin, while 
carnage was laying its scores of victims around him, and 
his commander was borne mortally wounded from the field 
— we behold him riding from point to point, bringing order 
out of confusion, and leading away from that aceldama the 
shattered battalions of the proud army of the morning to a 
place of safety and repose. Then he returned to Mount 
Vernon, weak from recent sickness and exposure in the field. 
In his little library there, he wrote to his brother, then a 
member of the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg, and 
thus summed up his military career : — 



EARLY DISCOURAGEMENTS IN MILITARY LIFE. 245 

" I was employed to go a journey in the winter, when I 
believe few or none would have undertaken it, and what did 
I get by it? My expenses borne! I was then appointed, 
with trifling pay, to conduct a handful of men to the Ohio. 
What did I get by that ? Why, after putting myself to a 
considerable expense in equipping and providing necessaries 
for the campaign, I went out, was soundly beaten, and lost 
all ! Came in, and had my commission taken from me ; or, 
in other words, my command reduced, under pretence of an 
order from home. I then went out a volunteer with General 
Braddock, and lost all my horses, and many other things. 
But this being a voluntary act, I ought not to have mentioned 
it ; nor should I have done it, were it not to show that I 
have been on the losing order ever since I entered the 
service, which is now nearly two years." 

But what wonderful and necessary lessons for the future 
had Washington learned during that time ! 

Mount Vernon saw but little of its master during the next 
four years ; for the flame of war lighted up the land from 
Acadia and along the St. Lawrence, away down to the 
beautiful Cherookee country, in Western Georgia and 
Carolina, and Washington was most of the time in camp, 
except from December, 1757, until March, 1758, when he 
was an invalid at home. 

In February, 1756, we find him, accompanied by two 
aides, journeying to Boston, to confer with General Shirley 
concerning military rank in Virginia. Little did he then 
think that twenty years later he would again be there, direct- 
ing a siege against the New England capital, in command 
of rebels against the crown he was then serving ! The life 
even of Washington had its share of romance. 

We find him lingering in New York. On his return, 
writers of the time record how the young soldier, apparently 
invincible to the mortal weapons of war, was sorely smitten 



246 MARY PHILL1PSE MORE THAN AN ATTRACTION. 

there by the "sly archer" concealed in the bright eyes, 
blooming cheeks, and winning ways of Mary Phillipse, the 
heiress of a broad domain stretching many a mile along the 
Hudson. The young soldier lingered in her presence as 
long as duty would permit, and he would fain have carried 
her with him to Virginia as a bride, but his natural diffidence 
kept the momentous question unspoken in his heart, and his 
fellow aide-de-camp in Braddock's family, Roger Morris, bore 
away the prize. Mary Phillipse did not become the mistress 
of Mount Vernon, but reigned as beauteous queen in a more 
stately mansion on the bank of the Harlem River, where, 
twenty years later, Washington, as leader of a host of 
Americans in arms against the king, held his headquarters, 
the master and mistress of the mansion being proscribed as 
" enemies to their country ! " 

But three years later there was a presiding angel over the 
mansion on Mount Vernon. Meanwhile, the tramp of steeds, 
the clangour of arms, and every sound betokening warlike 
preparations were heard there, and the decisive campaign 
of 1758 was opened. 

Lonely was the mansion at Mount Vernon without the 
master during the seven years and more that the war lasted. 
Yet it was by no means deserted. The only child of Mrs. 
Washington, John Parke Custis, with his wife and growing 
family, were there much of the time. 

On the 9th of September, 1781, the master of Mount 
Vernon paid his home an unexpected visit. The allied French 
and American armies were then on their march towards Vir- 
ginia, to assist Lafayette and his compatriots in driving the 
invading Cornwallis from that state. Washington came from 
Baltimore late at night, attended only by Colonel Humphreys 
(one of his aides) and faithful Billy. They had left the 
Count de Rochambeau and the Marquis de Chastellux — 
one at Alexandria and the other at Georgetown — to follow 




MARY PHILLIPSE. 



Reproduced by the Autotype Company, London. From the original Oil Painting by Middleton. 



ROCHAMBEAU AND DE CHASTELLUX. 247 

them in the morning. Very soon the whole household was 
astir, and the news flew quickly over the estate that he had 
arrived. At early dawn the servants came from every cabin 
to greet him, and many looked sorrowfully upon a face so 
changed by the storms of successive campaigns, during 
more than six years that he had been absent. 

On the morrow the French noblemen, with their suites, 
arrived — Rochambeau first, and De Chastellux afterward — 
and all but the chief made it a day of rest. For him there 
was no repose. He was not permitted to pass even an 
hour alone with his wife. Public and private cares were 
pressing heavily upon him. He was on his way to measure 
strength with a powerful enemy, and his words of affection 
were few and hurried. All the morning of the 10th he was 
closeted with his manager, and before dinner he wrote to 
Lafayette the first letter that he had dated at Mount 
Vernon since early in May, 1775, saying, "We are thus far 
on our way to you. The Count de Rochambeau has just 
arrived. General Chastellux will be here, and we propose, 
after resting to-morrow, to be at Fredericksburg on the 
night of the 1 2th. The 13th we shall reach New Castle ; 
and the next day we expect to have the pleasure of seeing 
you at your encampment.'' These calculations were cor- 
rect ; they arrived at the camp of Lafayette, at Williams- 
burg, on the evening of the 14th. 

Rochambeau and Chastellux were guests worthy of such 
a host. 

On the second day after Washington's arrival at Mount 
Vernon, the nth of September, the mansion was crowded 
with guests ; and at dinner were met gentlemen and ladies 
from the country for miles around, who had not been at the 
festive board with the master of the feast since the war 
broke out. And there were children, too — tiny children, 
whom the master loved as his own, for they were the 



248 AN ENGLISH DESCRIPTION OF WASHINGTON. 

grandchildren of his wife. There were four of these. The 
eldest was a beautiful girl, five years old, who afterwards 
married a nephew of Lord Ellenborough ; and the youngest 
was a boy-baby, only six months old, who was afterward 
adopted as the child of Washington, became one of the 
executors of his will, and lived until 1857. These were the 
children of John Parke Custis and his fair young wife, 
Eleanor Calvert, and had all been born during the absence 
of the master from his home at Mount Vernon. His ap- 
pearance about this time was thus described by a writer in 
the English London Chronicle paper, who had then seen 
him : — 

" General Washington is now in the forty-seventh year of 
his age, a handsome man, over six feet in height, rather 
large-boned ; his features manly and bold, his eyes of a 
bluish cast, his hair a deep brown, his face rather long, his 
complexion sunburnt, and without much colour ; his coun- 
tenance sensible, composed, and thoughtful. There is a 
remarkable air of dignity about him, with a striking degree 
of peacefulness. He has an excellent understanding ; is 
strictly just, vigilant, and generous ; an affectionate hus- 
band, a faithful friend, a father to the deserving soldier ; 
gentle in his manner, in temper reserved ; a total stranger 
to religious prejudices ; in morals irreproachable ; and never 
known to exceed the bounds of the most rigid temperance. 
In a word, all his friends and acquaintances allow that no 
man ever united in his own person a more perfect alliance 
of the virtues of a philosopher with the talents of a general. 
Candour , sincerity, affability, and simplicity seem to be the 
striking features of his character, and when occasion offers, 
the power of displaying the most determined bravery and 
independence of spirit." 

Domestic felicity and social enjoyment were, at that 
time, secondary considerations with Washington, and on 



NARROW ESCAPE OF MOUNT VERNON. 249 



the morning of the 12th of September he departed with all 
his military guests from his delightful dwelling-place, jour- 
neyed to Fredericksburg to embrace his aged mother and 
receive her blessing, and then hastened on towards York- 
town, where Cornwallis had entrenched himself with a view 
of overrunning Virginia. 

In the early part of 1 7SL1 Mount Vernon very narrowly 
escaped destruction by the enemy. General Phillips had 
been operating in the country immediately around it, and 
some of his smaller vessels had carried on a plan of 
plunder and devastation in several of the rivers emptying 
into the Chesapeake Bay, setting fire to the houses where 
they met with resistance. One had ascended the Potomac 
and menaced Mount Vernon. Lafayette had been operat- 
ing against General Phillips, and had used the opportunity 
of being in the neighbourhood to pay a hurried visit to 
Washington's mother at Fredericksburg. Lund Washington, 
who had charge of the estate at the time, met the flag 
which the enemy sent on shore, and saved the property 
from pillage by furnishing the vessel with provisions. 
Lafayette, who heard of the circumstance, and was sensitive 
for the honour of Washington, immediately wrote to him on 
the subject. " This conduct on the part of the person who 
represents you on your estate must certainly produce a bad 
effect, and contrast with the courageous replies of some of 
your neighbours, whose houses in consequence have been 
burnt. You will do what you think proper, my dear General, 
but friendship makes it my duty to give you confidentially 
the facts." 

Washington, however, had previously received a letter 
from Lund himself, stating all the circumstances of the 
case, and had immediately written him a reply. He had 
no doubt that Lund had acted from his best judgment, and 
with a view to preserve the property and buildings from 

K k 



250 LUND WASHINGTON REBUKED BY WASHINGTON. 

impending danger ; but he was stung to the quick by the 
idea that his agent should go on board of the enemy's vessels, 
carry them refreshments, and " commune with a parcel 
of plundering scoundrels," as he termed them. " It would 
have been a less painful circumstance to me to have heard," 
writes he, " that in consequence of your non-compliance 
with their request they had burnt my house and laid my 
plantations in ruins. You ought to have considered your- 
self as my representative, and should have reflected on the 
bad example of communicating with the enemy, and making 
a voluntary offer of refreshments to them, with a view to 
prevent a conflagration." In concluding his letter he 
expresses his opinion that it was the intention of the enemy 
to prosecute the plundering plan they had begun, and that 
it would end in the destruction of his property, but adds 
that he is " prepared for the event." He advises his agent 
to deposit the most valuable and least bulky articles in a 
place of safety. " Such and so many things as are neces- 
sary for common and present use must be retained, and 
must run their chance through the fiery ordeal of this 
summer." Such were the steadfast purposes of Washing- 
ton's mind when war was brought home to his door, and 
threatening his earthly paradise of Mount Vernon. 

Washington, like every other lover of nature, had been 
charmed with the beautiful holly-tree, which in England 
does so much to add to the charms of shrubberies from 
the month of October until the end of February, by its 
exquisite red berries, and which throughout England, from 
time immemorial, has been universally availed of for 
Christmas decorative purposes. North of Virginia it is 
unable to resist the severe winters ; but in Virginia, and 
south of it, this exquisite shrub grows well, though not 
as luxuriantly as in England. He managed to raise them 
from berries, and many trees thus produced now exist on 



HIS CONTINUED WORRIES WHEN AT MT. VERNON. 251 

the place. He had learnt the policy of clothing his 
ornamented grounds as much as possible with evergreens, 
which resist the rigours of winter, and maintain a cheering 
verdure throughout the year. Like a true gardener, he had 
been most charmed with the holly for this purpose, though 
in his day he could hardly have seen the exquisite variegated 
varieties now found throughout England. 

It must not be imagined that Washington found the 
hoped-for haven in his retreats to Mount Vernon. On 
each occasion of seeking rest there he had to endure the 
lot common to men who have been harnessed to the chariot 
of earnest, patriotic service of his country. It afforded 
him little relaxation of any continuance. Irving pathetically 
asks, " Was a soldier's dream realized ? Is he in perfect 
enjoyment of that seclusion from the world and its dis- 
tractions which he had so often pictured to himself amid 
the hardships and turmoils of the camp ? " Alas, no ! 
The " post," that " herald of a noisy world," invades his 
quiet, and loads his table with letters, until correspondence 
becomes an intolerable burden. He looks in despair at 
the daily accumulating mass of unanswered letters. " Many 
mistakingly think," writes he, " that I am retired to ease, 
and to that kind of tranquillity which would grow tiresome 
for want of employment ; but at no period of my life, not 
in the years I served the public, have I been obliged to 
write so much myself as I have done since my retirement." 
So wrote he to Richard Henry Lee. Again — " It is not 
the letters from my friends which give me trouble, or add 
aught to my perplexity. It is references to old matters, 
with which I have nothing to do ; applications which often 
cannot be complied with ; inquiries which would require the 
pen of a historian to satisfy ; letters of compliment, as 
unmeaning, perhaps, as they are troublesome, but which 
must be attended to ; and the commonplace business which 

K k 2 



252 MOUNT VERNON A LOVED RETREAT. 

employs my pen and my time often disagreeably. These, 
with company, deprive me of exercise, and, unless I can 
obtain relief, must be productive of disagreeable con- 
sequences." At length he found faithful help in the willing 
and efficient services of Mr. Tobias Lear, who for some 
years acted as his private secretary, and who was thoroughly 
desirous of doing his utmost to relieve him of as much 
of the drudgery as could be deputed. Lear was a graduate 
of Harvard University, an able and accomplished young 
man, and who, in addition to his secretarial duties, assisted 
in the education of the two children of Mr. Parke Custis, 
whom Washington had adopted. 

Mount Vernon was ever a loved retreat to its illustrious 
owner. Just subsequent to his tour in the Eastern States, 
at the time when Rhode Island had adopted the constitution, 
and he had avoided going there because it had not then 
joined the union under the new government, his dear home 
proved productive of convalescence to his worn mind and 
wearied body. His health had been impaired by severe 
disease and constant application to business, and he deter- 
mined to take advantage of the recess of Congress, and 
throw off for a brief space the burden of public cares, and 
seek repose and recreation in his own quiet home at Mount 
Vernon. His letters show how he always returned to that 
spot with delight ; and at that time of prostration it proved 
doubly dear to him, as it promised rest from labour, refresh- 
ment to his weary spirit and debilitated body, and a few 
days of leisure — alas ! too short, as he observed with a sigh 
to his trusty and beloved Hamilton — to ride over his farms, 
view his gardens, orchards, and fields, and observe the 
progress of his agricultural operations. These had been 
carried on under great disadvantage, in fits and snatches, 
as it were. The labour and public cares which throughout 
life had fallen to him utterly prevented any regular and 



LABOUR IN FOUNDING THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. 253 

systematic care of his farm. No sooner had he determined 
on a plan of work, than some public duty or irresistible call 
interfered to place it in abeyance. The determining the 
permanent seat of government, he told Sharpies when 
wandering with him at early morn over the Mount Vernon 
lands, had given him an immensity of labour and corre- 
spondence. Congress had been for a long time divided on 
the point. Local interests, and other considerations, made 
it difficult to agree on the place best adapted for the purpose. 
It was at length resolved it should be removed for ten years to 
Philadelphia, and then be established at some place on the 
Potomac River. Ultimately the position was selected — 
afterwards named the District of Columbia — and the terri- 
tory was surveyed, the city planned, and the public buildings 
commenced under the direction of Washington — this duty 
devolving on him as President. 

In viewing that magnificent city, probably some day to 
be second to few on the globe, how rarely is it remembered 
the hand he had in all these laborious preliminaries ! He 
told Sharpies, " They were about the heaviest duties of my 
life." For fully five years they occupied a good deal of his 
time and mechanical toil. In this, as in every other trust, 
was shown the same undeviating compliance with the laws, 
and minute exaction of all accounts, which marks all busi- 
ness acts of his life. During this lengthened period he 
carried on a voluminous correspondence with the commis- 
sioners he had appointed to manage the business, and who 
fell back on him for directions on points of detail he might 
well have been spared. The willing horse need never 
despair of a rider. 

Late in the autumn of 1781 Washington again visited 
Mount Vernon for a brief season. It was when he was on 
his journey to Philadelphia, in November, bearing the laurels 
of a victor. He was accompanied as far as Fredericksburg 



254 JOURNEYS TO FREDERICKSBURG TO HIS MOTHER. 

by a large retinue of American and French officers ; and 
there, after an interview with his mother, he attended a ball 
given in honour of the occasion. The aged matron went 
with him to the assembly, and astonished the French officers 
by the plainness of her apparel, and the quiet simplicity of 
her manners, for they expected to see the mother of the 
great chief distinguished by a personal display such as they 
had been accustomed to behold among the families of the 
great in their own country. They thought of the Dowager 
Queen of France, of the brilliant Maria Antoinette, and the 
high-born dames of the Court of Louis XVI., and could not 
comprehend the vision. 

Washington retired with his mother from the gay scene 
at an early hour, and the next morning, attended by two 
aides and Billy, he rode to Mount Vernon. His stay there 
was brief. Public duties beckoned him forward. " I shall 
remain but a few days here," he wrote to General Greene, 
"and shall proceed to Philadelphia, when I shall attempt 
to stimulate Congress to the best improvement of our late 
success, by taking the most vigorous and effectual mea- 
sures to be ready for an early and decisive campaign the 
next year." 

Gallant as he was in the society of the softer sex, it is 
not to be wondered at that he should wish Mount Vernon 
to be honoured by a visit from the wife of a beloved and 
faithful friend, such as Lafayette had ever proved. Under 
such desire we find him subsequently, in a letter to the 
Marchioness de Lafayette, inviting her to America to see 
the country, " young, rude, and uncultivated as it is," for 
the liberties of which her husband had fought, bled, and 
acquired much glory, and where everybody admired and 
loved him, and he adds, " I am now enjoying domestic cares 
under the shadow of mv own vine and my own fig-tree, 
in a small villa, with the implements of husbandry and lamb- 



INVITATION TO MARCHIONESS DE LAFAYETTE. 255 

kins about me. . . . Come, then, let me entreat you, and 
call my cottage your own, for your doors do not open to 
you now with more readiness than mine would. You 
would see the plain manner in which we live, and meet with 
rustic civility ; and you shall taste the simplicity of rural 
life. It will diversify the scene, and may give you a 
higher relish for the gaieties of the Court when you return 
to Versailles." 

At times during these periods of rest, he allows free run 
to his dreams of enlarged hospitality. He indulges in 
dreams of desired descents of old comrades, and especially 
during the winter storms, we find him anticipating those 
times when the return of the sun will enable him to welcome 
these his friends and companions-in-arms to partake of his 
hospitality, and lays down his unpretending plan of receiv- 
ing the curious visitors who are likely to throng in upon 
him. " My manner of living," writes he to a friend, " is 
plain, and I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass of 
wine and a bit of mutton are always ready, and such as will 
be content to partake of them are always welcome ; those 
who expect more will be disappointed." 

Warm and generous as his heart ever was, yet he was never 
known to have indulged in expenditure beyond his private 
means. The war had somewhat crippled his income, but 
he earnestly endeavoured to equalize expenditure and 
income by careful abstinence from luxuries. Some degree 
of economy was necessary. His financial concerns had 
always been carefully looked into, and although the pro- 
ducts of his estate had fallen off during his long absence, 
yet there was never at any time any curtailing savouring of 
parsimony. 

In the meantime, the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania, 
properly appreciating the disinterestedness of his conduct, 
and aware that popular love and popular curiosity would 



256 STATE REWARD OF SERVICE DECLINED. 

attract crowds of visitors to Mount Vernon, and subject 
him to extraordinary expenses, had instructed their delegates 
in Congress to call the attention of that body to these cir- 
cumstances, with a view to produce some national reward 
for his eminent services. Before acting upon these instruc- 
tions, the delegates were directed to send a copy of them to 
Washington for his approbation. He received the docu- 
ment while buried in accounts and calculations, and when, 
had he been of a mercenary disposition, the offered in- 
tervention in his favour would have seemed most season- 
able ; but he at once most gratefully and respectfully 
declined it, jealously maintaining the satisfaction of having 
served his country at the sacrifice of his private interest. 

Few men could throw off the manners of the tented field 
and adopt that of the political ruler, or even the retirement 
of a simple country home with such dignity as was his in 
the former, or with the ease and content evidenced by 
him in the latter enviable condition. 

As the spring of 1784 advanced, Irving tells us " Mount 
Vernon, as had been anticipated, began to attract nume- 
rous visitors. They were received in the frank, unpretending 
style Washington had determined upon. It was truly 
edifying to behold how easily and contentedly he subsided 
from the authoritative commander-in-chief of armies into 
the quiet country gentleman. There was nothing awkward 
or violent in the transition. He seemed to be in his natural 
element. Mrs. Washington, too, who had presided with quiet 
dignity at headquarters, and cheered the wintry gloom at 
Valley Forge with her presence, presided with equal amenity 
and grace at the simple board of Mount Vernon. She had 
a cheerful good sense that always made her an agreeable 
companion, and was an excellent manager. She has been 
remarked for an inveterate habit of knitting. It had been 
acquired, or at least fostered, in the wintry encampments 



BUSINESS ARRANGEMENTS AT MOUNT VERNON 257 

of the Revolution, where she used to set an example to her 
lady visitors, by diligently plying her needles, knitting stock- 
ings for the poor destitute soldiers. 

During the most trying years devoted to his country, 
Washington had never ceased having his home before him. 
Therefore, in re-entering upon the outdoor management of 
his estate at Mount Vernon, he was but doing in person 
what he had long been doing through others. He had 
never virtually ceased to be an agriculturist. Throughout 
all his campaigns he had kept himself informed of the 
course of rural affairs at Mount Vernon. By means of 
maps on which every field was laid down and numbered, 
he was enabled to give directions for their several cultiva- 
tion, and receive accounts of their several crops. No 
hurry of affairs prevented a correspondence with his over- 
seer or agent, and he exacted weekly reports. Thus his 
rural were interwoven with his military cares, the agricul- 
turist was mingled with the soldier; and those strong 
sympathies with the honest cultivators of the soil, and that 
paternal care of their interests to be noted throughout his 
military career, may be ascribed, in a great measure, to the 
sweetening influences of Mount Vernon. Yet as spring 
returned, and he resumed his rides about the beautiful 
neighbourhood of this haven of his hopes, he must have 
been mournfully sensible, now and then, of the changes 
which time and events had effected there. 

There is a certain degree of sadness traceable in most 
of Washington's visits to his loved home. The longed-for 
repose never came. The relentless pursuer of notabilities 
was constantly on his track, intruding into his presence 
with an importunity and assurance beyond all endurance. 
Alas for public men in America, repose, or even the veriest 
morsel of privacy, is denied them ; the hideous nightmare 
spreads its murky wings with greater persistence than in 

L 1 



258 ORGANIZATION OF CONGRESSIONAL HOUSES. 

Washington's time, and has gained an ascendancy beyond 
mortal power of combat. Washington Irving had occasion 
to write: "My life is a burden, the harpies close in on 
every side. Would there was a cave at Sunnyside to which 
I could retreat ! " 

So tardily did the members of the Federal Congress 
assemble, that a quorum was not present at the capital in 
New York until the beginning of April, when the votes of 
the electoral college were counted, and Washington was 
declared to be elected President of the United States by 
the unanimous voice of the people. That delay was a source 
of pleasure to him. In a letter to General Knox, he com- 
pared it to a reprieve ; " for," he said, "in confidence I tell 
you (with the world it would obtain little credit) that my 
movements to the chair of government will be accompanied 
by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the 
place of execution." " I am sensible," he continued, " that 
I am embarking the voice of the people, and a good name 
of my own on this voyage, but what returns will be made 
for them heaven alone can foretell. Integrity and firmness 
are all I can promise. These, be the voyage long or short, 
shall never forsake me, although I may be deserted by all men; 
for of all the consolations which are to be derived from them, 
under any circumstances the world cannot deprive me." 

The Senate of the United States was organized on the 
6th of April, and John Langdon, a representative therein 
from New Hampshire, was chosen its president pro tempore. 
As soon as the votes of the electoral college were opened 
and counted, he wrote a letter to the illustrious farmer at 
Mount Vernon, notifying him of the fact of his election. 
This letter, with an official certificate, was conveyed to the 
chief magistrate elect by the venerable Secretary Thomson, 
who arrived at Mount Vernon on Tuesday, the 14th, between 
ten and eleven o'clock in the morning. Washington was 



WASHINGTON ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY. 259 



making the usual tour of his farms, and the secretary was 
cordially received by Mrs. Washington, who had enjoyed 
his friendship and the hospitality of his house at Philadelphia. 
On his return from the fields at a quarter before one, 
Washington greeted Mr. Thomson with much warmth, for 
their friendship was most sincere. They had gone through 
a long struggle for their country's liberation hand in hand, 
one in the field, the other in the senate ; and the bond of 




MOUNT VERNON (REAR VIEW). 

sympathy, strengthened by retrospection, was powerful. 
Thomson was soon invited to the library, where he revealed 
the object of his visit, and delivered the letter of Presi- 
dent Langdon. Public affairs at once became the topic 
of conversation, and long did the two patriots linger 
at the table that day, after Mrs. Washington, Colonel 
Humphreys, Mr. Lear, and two or three guests had with- 

L 1 2 



26o fflS FORMAL ACCEPTANCE. 



drawn. Only for a few minutes were they separated, when 
Washington, in his private study in an upper room, wrote 
the following letter to Mr. Langdon, and placed it in the 
hands of a servant to be conveyed to the post-office at 
Alexandria : — 

"Mount Vernon, 14th April, 1789. 

"Sir, — I had the honour to receive your official commu- 
nication by the hand of Mr. Secretary Thomson, about one 
o'clock this day. Having concluded to obey the important 
and flattering call of my country, and having been impressed 
with the idea of the expediency of my being with Congress 
at as early a period as possible, I propose to commence my 
journey on Thursday morning, which will be the day after 
to-morrow." 

Toward evening Washington left Mount Vernon on horse- 
back, accompanied by his faithful servant Billy, and rode 
rapidly towards Fredericksburg, where his aged and invalid 
mother resided. He went to embrace her and bid her fare- 
well before leaving for the distant seat of government. She 
was suffering from cancer, and the weight of more than 
fourscore years was upon her. The interview between the 
matron and her illustrious son was full of the most touching 
sublimity. " The people, madam," said Washington, " have 
been pleased with the most flattering unanimity to elect me 
to the chief magistracy of the United States ; but before I 
can assume the functions of that office I have come to bid 
you an affectionate farewell. So soon as the public business 
which must necessarily be encountered in arranging a new 
government can be disposed of, I shall hasten to Virginia, 
and — " Here she interrupted him, saying, " You will see 
me no more. My great age, and the disease that is rapidly 
approaching my vitals, warn me that I shall not be long in 
this world. I trust in God I am somewhat prepared for a 
better. But go, George, fulfil the high destinies which 



HE LEAVES MOUNT VERNON. 261 

Heaven appears to assign you ; go, my son, and may that 
Heaven's and your mother's blessing be with you always." 

The mother and son embraced for the last time, for before 
he could return to Virginia, she was laid in the grave. 

Washington returned to Mount Vernon on the evening of 
the 15th, and found everything in preparation for the journey 
toward New York the following morning. Nothing essential 
to the master's comfort and convenience was omitted by the 
faithful Billy. 

There was a great stir at Mount Vernon on the morning 
of the 1 6th. Before sunrise a messenger had come from 
Alexandria, and departed ; and that evening Washington 
wrote in his diary : " About ten o'clock I bade adieu to 
Mount Vernon, to private life and to domestic felicity, and 
with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensa- 
tions than I have words to express, set out for New York, 
in company with Mr. Thomson and Colonel Humphreys, 
with the best disposition to render service to my country in 
obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its 
expectations." 

Washington's neighbours and friends at Alexandria had 
invited him to halt and partake of a public dinner on the 
way. This manifestation of friendship touched his heart ; but 
still deeper were his tenderest emotions awakened when, as 
he and his travelling companions ascended a little hill about 
a mile from his home, and came in view of the lodges at his 
gate, he saw a cavalcade of those friends, waiting to escort 
him to the town. The scene was one of marvellous interest. 
It was the first of a series of ovations that awaited him on 
his journey. 

The President elect was anxious to proceed to New York 
with as little parade as possible, but the enthusiasm of the 
people could not be repressed. His journey was like 
a triumphal march. At Alexandria he partook of a public 



262 OVATIONS AT GEORGETOWN AND BALTIMORE. 

dinner, when the mayor said, " The first and best of our 
citizens must leave us ; our aged must lose their ornament, 
our youth their model, our agriculture its improver, our 
commerce its friend, our infant academy its protector, 1 our 
poor their benefactor. * * * Farewell ! " he said, 
turning to Washington, " go, and make a grateful people 
happy ; a people who will be doubly grateful when they 
contemplate this new sacrifice for their interests." 

Washington's feelings were deeply touched. He could 
say but little. "Words fail me," he said; "unutterable 
sensations must then be left to more expressive silence, 
while from an aching heart I bid all my affectionate friends 
and kind neighbours — farewell." 

The President was greeted by the Marylanders at George- 
town ; and at Baltimore he was entertained by a large number 
of citizens at a public supper. When leaving the city the 
next morning at half-past five, he was saluted by discharges 
of cannon, and attended by a cavalcade of gentlemen, who 
rode seven miles with him. At the frontier of Pennsylvania 
he was met early on the morning of the 19th by two troops 
of cavalry and a cavalcade of citizens at the head of 
whom were Governor MifHin and Judge Peters ; and by them 
he was escorted to Philadelphia. Upon that frontier 
Washington left his carriage, and mounting a superb white 
charger, he took position in the line of procession, with 
Secretary Thomson on one side and Colonel Humphreys 
on the other. 

At Gray's Ferry, on the Schuylkill, they were joined by 
an immense number of citizens, led in order by General St. 
Clair. A triumphal arch was erected on both sides of the 
river, covered with laurel-branches and approached through 
avenues of evergreens. As Washington passed under the 

1 Washington had given funds for the establishment of an academy at 
Alexandria, and was its patron. 



A CROWN OF LAUREL PLACED ON HIS HEAD. 263 



last arch, Angelica Peale, daughter of the artist and a child 
of rare beauty, and whose portrait was a few years later painted 
by Sharpies, was concealed in the foliage, and let down a 
handsomely ornamented civic crown of laurel which rested 
upon the head of the patriot. The incident caused a 
tumultuous shout. The procession moved on into the city, 
its volume increasing every moment. At least twenty 
thousand people lined its passage-way from the Schuylkill 
to the city ; and at every step the President was greeted 
with shouts of " Long live George Washington ! " " Long 
live the father of his country ! " 

The President was entertained at a sumptuous banquet, 
given by the authorities at the City Tavern, and the next 
morning the military were paraded to form an escort for him 
to Trenton. But heavy rain frustrated their designs. 
Washington was compelled to ride in his carriage, and he 
would not allow an escort of friends to travel in the rain. 

When the President and suite approached Trenton in the 
afternoon, the clouds had disappeared, and in the warm 
sunshine he crossed the Delaware, amid the greetings of 
shouts and cannon-peals, and the feu de joie of musketry. 
His route lay across the same bridge over the little stream 
which flows through the town, where, twelve years before, 
he had been driven across by Cornwallis on the evening 
previous to the battle at Princeton. Upon that bridge, 
where he was thus humiliated, was now a triumphal arch, 
twenty feet in height, supported by thirteen pillars twined 
with evergreens. 

With joyous greetings at every step, Washington pro- 
ceeded through New Jersey, over which he had once fled 
with a half-starved, half-naked army, before a closely 
pursuing foe, and at Elizabethtown Point he was met on 
the morning of the 23rd by a committee of both houses of 
Congress, and several civil and military officers. They 



264 GRAND SPECTACLES JN NEW YORK HARBOUR. 



had prepared a magnificent barge for his reception, which 
was manned by thirteen pilots, in white uniforms, com- 
manded by Commodore Nicholson. In New York harbour 
the vessels were all decked with flags in honour of the Presi- 
dent, and gaily-dressed small boats swarmed upon the 
waters, filled with gentlemen and ladies. The Spanish ship- 
of-war Galveston, lying in the harbour, was the only vessel of 
all nations that did not show signs of respect. The neglect 
was so marked that many words of censure were heard, 
when, at a given signal, just as the barge containing 
Washington was abreast of her, she displayed, on every 
part of her rigging, every flag and signal known among 
the nations. At the same moment she discharged thirteen 
heavy guns, and these were answered by the grand battery 
on shore. In the midst of this cannonade, and the shouts 
of the multitude on land and water, the President debarked, 
and was conducted by a military and civic procession to 
the residence prepared for his use, at No. 10, Cherry Street, 
near Franklin Square. 

Such was the reception of the first President at the 
capital of the Union. 

On Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789, Washington was 
inaugurated the first President of the United States. The 
ceremonies were preceded by a national salute at Bowling 
Green, the assembling of the people in the churches 
to implore the blessings of Heaven on the nation and the 
President, and a grand procession. The august spectacle 
was exhibited upon the open gallery at the front of the old 
Federal Hall, at the head of Broad Street, in the presence 
of a vast assemblage of people. Washington was dressed 
in a suit of dark-brown cloth, and white silk stockings, all 
of American manufacture, with silver buckles upon his 
shoes, and his hair powdered and dressed in the fashion of 
the time. Before him, when he arose to take the oath of 



CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTONE ADMINISTERS OATH. 265 

office, stood Chancellor Livingstone, in a suit of black 
broadcloth ; and near him were Vice-President Adams, 
Mr. Otis, the Secretary of the Senate, who held an open 
Bible upon a rich crimson cushion, Generals Knox, St. 
Clair, Steuben, and other officers of the army, and George 
Clinton, the Governor of the State of New York. 

Washington laid his hand upon the page containing the 
fiftieth chapter of Genesis, opposite to which were two 
engravings, one representing The Blessing of Zebulon, the 
other, The Prophecy of Issachar. Chancellor Livingstone 
then raised his hand for the multitude to be silent, and in 
a clear voice read the prescribed oath. The President 




BIBLE USED AT THE INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON. 

said, " I swear," then bowed his head and kissed the sacred 
volume, and with closed eyes, as he resumed his erect 
position, he continued with solemn voice and devotional 
attitude, " So help me God ! " 

" It is done ! " exclaimed the Chancellor, and with a loud 
voice shouted, " Long live George Washington, President 
of the United States ! " 

Mrs. Washington did not journey to New York with her 
husband. Her reluctance to leave Mount Vernon and the 
quiet of domestic pursuits was quite equal to his. She 
loved her home, her family, and friends, and had no taste 
for the excitements of fashionable society and public life. 
She was, in every respect, a model Virginia housekeeper. 

M m 



266 MARTHA WASHINGTON AN EARLY RISER. 

She was a very early riser, leaving her pillow at dawn at 
every season of the year, and engaging at once in the active 
duties of her household. Yet these duties never kept her 
from daily communion with God in the solitude of her 
closet. After breakfast she invariably retired to her 
chamber, where she remained an hour reading the 
Scriptures, and engaged in thanksgiving and prayer. 
For more than half a century she practised such de- 




washington's secretary and circular chair. 

votions in secret ; and visitors often remarked that 
when she appeared after the hour of spiritual exercises 
her countenance beamed with ineffable sweetness. 

All day long that careful, bustling, industrious little 
housewife kept her hands in motion. " Let us repair to the 
old lady's room, which is precisely in the style of our good 
old aunt's — that is to say, nicely fixed for all sorts of work 
On one side sits the chambermaid with her knitting ; on the 



HER PREFERENCES OF HOME TO PUBLIC LIFE. 267 

other a little coloured pet learning to sew. An old, decent 
woman is there, with her table and shears, cutting out the 
negroes' winter clothes, while the good lady directs them all, 
incessantly knitting herself. She points out to me several 
pairs of nice coloured stockings and gloves she has just 
finished, and presents me with a pair half done, which she 
begs I will finish and wear for her sake. It is wonderful, 
after a life spent as those good people have necessarily 
spent theirs, to see them in retirement assume those domestic 
habits that prevail in our country." 

Mrs. Washington always spoke of the time when she was 
in public life, as wife of the President of the United States, 
as her " lost days." She was compelled to be governed by 
the etiquette prescribed for her, and she was very restive 
under it. To the wife of George A. Washington, the 
general's nephew, who had married her niece, and who was 
left in charge of domestic affairs at Mount Vernon when her 
husband assumed the presidency, she wrote from New York, 
saying : — 

" Mrs. Sims will give you a better account of the fashions 
I saw. I live a very dull life here and know nothing that 
passes in the town. I never go to any public place ; indeed 
I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else. 
There are certain bounds set for me which I must not 
depart from ; and as I cannot do as I like, I am obstinate, 
and stay at home a great deal." 

At that time the etiquette of the President's household 
was not fully determined on. In his diary, on the 15th of 
November, Washington wrote : " Received an invitation to 
attend the funeral of Mrs. Roosevelt (the wife of a senator 
of this state — New York), but declined complying with it : 
first, because the propriety of accepting any invitation of 
this sort appeared very questionable ; and secondly (though 
to do it in this instance might not be improper), because it 

M m 2 



263 REMOVAL OF GOVERNMENT TO PHILADELPHIA. 

might be difficult to discriminate in cases which might here- 
after happen." 

The establishment of precedents and the arrangement of 
etiquette were of more importance than might at first thought 
appear. The plan of having certain days and hours when 
the President would receive calls, was a measure of absolute 
necessity, in order that the chief magistrate might have the 
control of his time, and yet it offended many who were of 
the extremely democratic school. 

The precedents of monarchy might not be followed in a 
simple republic, and yet a certain dignity was to be pre- 
served. The arrangement of official ceremonies, connected 
with the President personally, was finally left to Colonel 
Humphreys, who had been abroad, and was a judicious 
observer of the phases of society under every aspect. The 
customs which were established during Washington's ad- 
ministration concerning the levies — the President not 
returning private visits, &c. — have ever since prevailed, and 
the chief magistrate of the republic is never seen in the 
position of a private citizen. 

The seat of the federal government was removed from 
New York to Philadelphia in 1790, by Act of Congress. 
That body adjourned on the 1 2th of August,and Washington 
immediately thereafter made a voyage to Newport, Rhode 
Island, for the benefit of his health. Close application to 
public business had caused a nervous prostration, that 
threatened consequences almost as serious as those with 
which he had been menaced by a malignant carbuncle the 
year before. He had also suffered severely from violent 
inflammation of the lungs. 

The sea voyage was beneficial, and on the 30th of August, 
the President and his family set out for Mount Vernon, 
there to spend the few months before the next meeting of 
Congress at Philadelphia. They left New York for Elizabeth- 



HE RETURNS TO MOUNT VERNON. 



269 



town in the splendid barge in which they had arrived, amid 
the thunders of cannon and the huzzas of a great multitude 
of people. 

In a few days Washington was again beneath the roof he 
loved so well, at Mount Vernon, but the coveted enjoyment 
of his home was lessened by the weight of public cares that 
pressed upon him. The old feeling of deep responsibility, 




MOUNT VERNON. 



which it was so difficult for him to lay aside at the close of 
his military career, returned ; and in his library, where he 
loved to devote his morning hours to reading, and the labours 
of the pen in recording facts connected with his pursuits 
as a farmer, he might be seen with slate, maps, plans, and 
everything that indicated the weighty cares of a public man. 
The Congress then just closed had been a most important 
one, and the labours of every conscientious officer and 



270 



ADVANCE IN PHILADELPHIA RENTS. 



employee of the government had been very severe. Upon 
them had been laid the responsible and momentous task of 
putting in motion the machinery of a new government, and 
laying the foundations of the then present and future policy 
of that government, domestic and foreign. As the chief 
magistrate of the republic, the chief officer of the govern- 
ment, the chief architect of the new superstructure in pro- 
gress, Washington felt the solemnity of his position, and 
the importance of the great trusts which the people had 
placed in his hands ; and the sense of all this denied him 
needful repose, even while sitting within the quietude of his 
home on the banks of the Potomac. 

There were some Philadelphians who were as afflicted 
because Congress was coming there, as New Yorkers 
were in having the government leave their city. As soon 
as it was ascertained that the government would reside 
there ten years, rents, and the prices of every kind of 
provision and other necessaries of life, greatly advanced. 
" Some of the blessings," said a letter-writer at Philadel- 
phia, quoted by Griswold, " anticipated from the removal 
of Congress to this city, are already beginning to be 

apparent. Rents of houses 
have risen, and I fear will 
continue to rise, shamefully ; 
even in the outskirts they 
have lately been increased 
from fourteen, sixteen, and 
eighteen pounds, to twenty- 
five, twenty-eight, and thirty. 
This is oppression. Our 
markets, it is expected, will also be dearer than heretofore.'' 
It was a view of these changes, and anticipated extortion, 
that made Washington so anxious to know beforehand how 
much rent he must pay for his house in Philadelphia. 




THE HOUSE IN WHICH WASHINGTON 
R] -HIED. 



MORRIS HO USE AS THE PRESIDENTIAL MANSION. 2 7 1 

When Oliver Wolcott, of Connecticut, was appointed 
first auditor of the treasury, he, like a prudent man, before 
he would accept the office, went to New York to ascertain 
whether he could live upon the salary of $1500 a year. He 
came to the conclusion that he could live upon $1000 a 
year, and he wrote to his wife, saying: "The example of 
the President and his family will render parade and expense 
improper and disreputable." This sentence speaks power- 
fully in illustration of the republican simplicity of Wash- 
ington's household in those days. 

The rent of Morris's house was fixed at $3000 dollars a 
year, and on the 22nd of November Washington left Mount 
Vernon for Philadelphia, accompanied by Mrs. Washington 
and family, in a chariot drawn by four horses. They were 
allowed to travel quietly, without any public parade, but 
receiving at every stopping-place the warm welcome of 
many private citizens and personal friends. None gave the 
President a heartier shake of the hand on this occasion, 
and none was more welcome to grasp it, than Tommy Giles, 
a short, thick-set man, of English birth, who kept a little 
tavern a short distance from the Head of Elk (now Elkton) 
on the road from Baltimore. His tavern-sign displayed a 
rude portrait of Washington ; and the President, on his way 
to and from Mount Vernon, never passed by until he had 
greeted the worthy man. 

Tommy had been a fife-major in the Continental army, 
and had been employed a long time by Washington, as 
his confidential express in the transmission of money from 
one point to another. In this business he was most trust- 
worthy. Mrs. Giles was a stout Englishwoman, but re- 
publican to the core. Washington always shook hands 
with her as heartily as with her husband, and frequently 
left a guinea in her palm. 

The President and his family reached Philadelphia on 



272 GAIETIES IN PHILADELPHIA. 

the 28th of November. The first of Mrs. Washington's 
public receptions was on the 25th of December — Christmas 
Day. It is said that the most brilliant assemblage of 
beautiful, well-dressed, and well-educated women that had 
ever been seen in America, appeared at that levee. The 
Vice-President's wife mentioned in a letter that the dazzling 
Mrs. Bingham and her beautiful sisters (Misses Willing), the 
Misses Aliens, the Misses Chew, and in short a constella- 
tion of beauties, were present. 

The season opened very gaily, and balls, routs and 
dinners of the most sumptuous kind succeeded each other 
in rapid succession. " I should spend a very dissipated 
winter," wrote Mrs. Adams, " if I were to accept one-half 
the invitations I receive, particularly to the routs, or tea 
and cards." Philadelphia had never seen or felt anything 
like it, and the whole town was in a state of virtual intoxica- 
tion for several weeks. But Washington and his wife 
could not be seduced from their temperate habits by the 
scenes of immoderate pleasure around them. They held 
their respective levies on Tuesdays and Fridays, as they did 
in New York, without the least ostentation ; and Congres- 
sional and official dinners were also given in a plain way, 
without any extravagent displays of plate, ornament, or 
variety of dishes. 

From Meade's "Old Churches, Ministers, and Families in 
Virginia " we learn that Washington was not indifferent to 
externals becoming his office and position. Soon after his 
arrival in New York to assume the duties of the presidency, 
he imported a semi-state carriage from England, in which 
towards the close of the time of his residence there, and 
while in Philadelphia, he often rode with his family, attended 
by outriders. On these occasions it was generally drawn by 
four, and sometimes by six fine bay horses. 

The imported vehicle, one of the best of its kind, is de- 



HIS ENGLISH CO A CH-ITS O VER TURN. 2 7 3 

scribed as heavy and substantial. The body and wheels were 
a cream colour, with gilt mouldings, suspended upon heavy 
leathern straps and iron springs. 




WASHINGTON S ENGLISH COACH. 



Upon the door Washington's arms were emblazoned 
having scroll ornaments issuing from the space between the 
shield and the crest; and below was a ribbon with his motto 
upon it. 

Upon each of the four panels of the coach was an alle- 
gorical picture, emblematic of one of the seasons. These 
were painted upon copper by Cipriani, an Italian artist. 
The ground was a dark green— so dark that it appeared 
nearly black ; and the allegorical figures were executed in 
bronze. One was emblematical of spring. 

Washington and his family travelled from Elizabethtown 
to Philadelphia in this coach when on the way from New 
York to Mount Vernon, in the early autumn of 1789. 
Dunn, his driver, appears to have been quite incompetent to 
manage the six horses ; and almost immediately after leav- 
ing Elizabethtown Point, he allowed the vehicle to run into 
a gully, by which it was injured. At Governor Livingston's, 
where they dined, another coachman was employed. 

N n 



274 



DESCRIPTION OF THE COACH 



In a letter to Mr. Lear, written at a tavern in Maryland, 
while on his way to Mount Vernon, Washington said : — 
" Dunn has given such proof of his want of skill in driving 
that I find myself under the necessity of looking out for 
some one to take his place. Before we reached Elizabeth- 
town we were obliged to take him from the coach and put 




PANEL OF WASHINGTON S COACH. 



him on the wagon. This he turned over twice, and this 
morning he was found much intoxicated. He has also got 
the horses into the habit of stopping." 

In a letter to Mr. Lear, soon after arriving at Mount Vernon, 
Washington mentions the fact that he had left the carriage 
and harness with Mr. Clarke, a coach-maker in Philadelphia, 
for repairs, and requests him to see that they are well done, 
when he shall reach that city, Mr. Lear being then in New 
York. Clarke built the coach in England, came over with 
it, and another precisely like it (which was imported by Mrs. 
Powell, of Philadelphia), and settled in business in that city. 



REMOVAL OF HIS EFFECTS TO PHILADELPHIA. 



275 



From Mount Vernon, during the recess, Washington 
wrote several letters to Mr. Lear, who was charged with the 
removal of the effects of the President from New York, 
hiring a house for his residence in Philadelphia, and ar- 
ranging the furniture of it. Previous to his arrival in 
Philadelphia from New York, the corporation of the latter 
city had hired for his use the house of Robert Morris, in 
Market Street, on the south side of Sixth Street, the best that 
could be procured at that time. Washington had examined 




Washington's camp chest. 



it, and found it quite too small to accommodate his house- 
hold as he could wish, even with an addition that was to be 
made. 
f^ This is stated in his letter to Mr. Charles Carter, mention- 
ing Middleton's portrait of his mother. " There are good 
stables," he said, " but for twelve horses only, and a coach- 
house which will hold all my carriages." He clearly main- 
tained considerable state and various equipages. There 
was a fine garden, well inclosed by a brick wall, attached 
to the mansion. 

N n 2 



276 



DECLINES STATE OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE. 



The State Legislature had, at about the same time, 
appropriated a fine building for his use on South Ninth 
Street, on the grounds now covered by the University. 
But he declined accepting it, not choosing to live in a house 
hired and furnished at the public expense. 

There were other considerations that caused him to 
decline the liberal offers of the state and city authorities, 
to relieve him of any private expense for the support of 
his personal establishment. The question of the perma- 
nent locality of the seat of the federal government was 
not then fairly settled, and the Philadelphians were using 
every means in their power to have it fixed in their city. 




Washington's inkstand. 



Washington was aware of this, and as he was more favour- 
able to a site further south, he was unwilling to afford a 
plea in favor of Philadelphia. 

This matter gave him some trouble. He was willing to 
rent Morris's house on his own account, and, with his 
accustomed prudence, he directed Mr. Lear to ascertain 
the price ; but for some months Mr. Lear was unsuccessful 
in his negotiations with Morris, who evidently sought to 
drive a good bargain. At length Mr. Lear arranged rent 
and needed alterations, but Washington, the first President, 
was never satisfied with the Philadelphia official residence. 
He wrote thus of it, — 



HIS SE VRES CHINA. 



277 



" When all is done that can be done, the residence will 
not be so commodious as that I left in New York, for there 
(and the want of it will be found a real inconvenience at 
Mr. Morris's) my office was in the front room below, 
where persons on business immediately entered ; whereas, 
in the present case, they will have to ascend two pairs of 
stairs, and to pass by the public rooms as well as the 
private chambers to get to it." 

In making suggestions to Mr. Lear about the proper 
arrangement of the furniture, even in minute detail, 
Washington said: "There is a small room adjoining the 




Washington's Sevres china, presented by "the Cincinnati." 

kitchen that might, if it is not essential for other purposes, 
be appropriated to the Sevres china, and other things of 
that sort, which are not in common use." He undoubtedly 
referred to sets of china which had been presented, one to 
himself, and the other to Mrs. Washington, by the officers 
of the French army. The former was a dull white in 
colour, with heavy scroll and leaf ornaments in bandeaux 
of deep blue, and having upon the sides of the cups and 



27 S CHINA PRESENTED BY FRENCH OFFICERS. 

tureens, and in the bottoms of the plates, saucers, and 
meat-dishes and other pieces, the Order of the Cincinnati, 
personated by a winged woman with a trumpet. These 
designs were in delicate colours. 

These sets of china were presented to Washington and 
his wife at the time the elegant and costly Order of the Cin- 
cinnati was sent to him. That Order cost 3000 dollars. 
The whole of the eagle, except the beak and eye, was 
composed of diamonds. So, also, is the group of military 
emblems above it, in which each drum-head is composed of 
one large diamond. 




MRS. WASHINGTON'S CHINA. 



The set of china presented at the same time by the 
French officers to Mrs. Washington was of similar material, 
but more delicate in colour than the general's. The 
ornamentation was also far more delicate, excepting the 
delineation of the figure and Cincinnati Order on the former. 
Around the outside of each cup and tureen, and the inside 
of each plate and saucer, were in delicate colour a chain of 
thirteen large and thirteen small elliptical links. Within 
each large link is the name of one of the original thirteen 
states. On the sides of the cups and tureens, and in the 
bottom of each plate and saucer, is the interlaced mono- 



WASHINGTON FA VOURS STYLISH EQUIPAGE. 279 



gram of Martha Washington — M. W. — inclosed in a green 
wreath, composed of the leaves of the laurel and olive. 
Beneath this is a ribbon, upon which is inscribed, in deli- 
cately traced letters, DECUS ET TUTAM ENABILLO. 
From the wreath are rays of gold. There is also a coloured 
stripe around the edges of the cups, saucers, and plates. 
A few pieces of this set of china were preserved at 
Arlington House, but probably shared the sad fate of that 
mansion in the late war. The engraving on previous page 
represents a cup and saucer, and plate. 

A writer, of the time remarked of the first President 
that he had not lost " the genteel taste for fine cloathes," 
as Walton expresses it in speaking of George Herbert, which 
marks his commissions to his London agents before the war; 
or for fine equipages, as when, in the precincts of the vice- 
regal court at Williamsburg, in the days of the old regime. 
Colonel Washington's bays vied with Colonel Byrd's grays.as 
is abundantly proved by the cream-coloured English coach, 
with panels painted by Cipriani with groups of the Seasons, 
and its six shining bay horses, which was one of the sights 
of Philadelphia ; and the purple satin dress, or rich black 
velvet, with diamond knee-buckles, scrupulously japanned 
shoes and buckles, ruffles, powder, bag and dress-sword of 
his presidential days ; all being adorned by a manner most 
courteous without being formal, a singularly attractive smile, 
eyes which could flash and glow on occasion, and an ex- 
pression of countenance, grave, but not stern, which no 
painter could catch, and by a form declared by Lafayette 
to be the most superb he had ever beheld. The internal 
arrangements of his household were all decorous and dig- 
nified. There was no useless parade or expense ; he always 
himself scrupulously inspected his weekly accounts ; but 
there was, at the same time, nothing sordid ; and though 
not of a disposition to diminish needlessly his patrimony, 



2 8o HIS STABLES AND STEWARD'S ESTABLISHMENT 

he freely spent the produce of the sale of a very consider- 
able estate to eke out the State salary. We find amusingly 
described in the " Recollections" the awful neatness of the 
President's stables ; the horses enveloped, the night before 
they were to be ridden, in a white paste ; the ostlers hard 
at work rubbing this off before dawn ; the overseer with a 
muslin handkerchief in his hand, on which, when applied to 
the animals' coats, if the slightest stain were perceptible, 
down came the whip ; then Fraunces, the steward of magni- 
ficent ideas, who, to reproaches on the score of waste, would 




SPECIMENS OF WASHINGTON S SILVER PLATE. 

reply with tears and the exclamation, " He may kill me if 
he will ; but while he is President, and I have the honour 
to be his steward, his establishment shall have the best of 
everything" — even the solitary shad of the season, at three 
dollars the fish, though the master's indignation at the cost 
might consign the luxury to the servants' hall ; and Uncle 
Harkless, the chief cook, sauntering with the dandies up 
Market Street, in silk, with cocked hat and gold-headed 
cane, to glorify the presidential establishment. 

Washington knew how to preserve simplicity of manner 



ETIQUETTE OBSERVED AT HIS LEVIES. 



281 



and thought amid some magnificence of living. Some few 
might murmur at, for instance, his levies and his wife's 
drawing-rooms as verging on monarchical etiquette and 
formality ; but, on the whole, the nation approved and liked 
to have a chief who could live like a prince, and feel and 
talk like a citizen among citizens. The voluntary celebra- 
tion of his birthday by a ball in every great town showed 
that the endurance of presidential ceremonials was not 
deemed by Republican America a forced discharge of the 
debt of gratitude due to its great liberator. 




MURAL CANDELABRA. 




THE ORDER OF THE CINCINNATI. 



WASHINGTON S DRESS SWORD. 



o o 



282 LOSS OF ROBERT FULTON'S CORRESPONDENCE. 



The papers left by Sharpies, together with such as were 
in Mr. Cary's possession at the time of his death, when the 
division of the portraits occurred, and all were for a time 
scattered, are of a fragmentary character, the result probably 
of carelessness in search, and through lack of interest at 
the time on the part of Mr. Cary's inheriting brother — a man 
utterly indifferent to American affairs, and worse than all, 
unequal to the great duty of grasping the importance of 
everything bearing on lives destined hereafter to be eagerly 
dwelt upon by the whole world. This lamentable careless- 
ness applies equally to Sharpies' widow as to Robert Cary's 
executors, and unfortunately the consequences are equally 
lamentable in both cases. Washington and Robert Fulton 
— the world's peerless Patriot, and the great practical 
engineer, who first applied steam to purposes of navigation. 
Where shall we seek greater men ? There was evidently 
an active correspondence on the part of Sharpies and 
Fulton, extending over a period of eventful years ; both 
were men of science as well as artists, constantly exchanging 
thoughts one with the other. 

The precise date of Sharpies' visit, or as some of his papers 
indicate, several stays at Mount Vernon, is not defined in any 
of these memoranda ; neither did those in his wife's holding 
state this. Happily, he seems to have been entirely absorbed 
in the revelations made to him by the illustrious sitter, and 
to have been so impressed with their import, as to have 
caused him to record these recollections of the occurrences, 
and of Washington's conversations with him during early 
morning walks before breakfast, and during his prolonged 
sittings, at much length in writing, and to have transmitted 
them to his wife, then in Philadelphia, at the joint home 
of the Franklins. All that are saved indicate that many 
others existed. Such papers did not assume the form of 
letters, but were the actual memoranda written in a book 



EVENTFUL OCCURRENCES OF 1794 AND 1795. 283 

he usually carried in his pocket when journeying from place 
to place executing his crayon portraits. He did not 
transcribe from his memorandum book, but tore the leaves 
out and enclosed them to his wife. Such of these as were 
transmitted to her from Mount Vernon point clearly to 
events occurring in 1794 and 1795. 

The mischievous activity and audacity of the French 
minister, Genet, combined with the defection of hitherto 
relied-on men at home, had worried Washington, causing 
deep mental anxiety ; the self-control usually his, had in 
a degree forsaken him, and no wonder, if memory is allowed 
to recall that John Adams had marked the hour in words 
of no common portent. " No prospect of peace in Europe, 
therefore none of internal harmony in America. We cannot 
well be in a more disagreeable situation than we are with 
all Europe, with all Indians, and with all Barbary rovers. 
Nearly one-half of the Continent is in constant opposition 
to the other, and the President's situation, which is highly 
responsible, is very distressing." 

That Washington had been greatly agitated at the time 
of making this admission is clearly seen from a further state- 
ment of Adams, that he had two hours' conversation with 
him alone in his cabinet, and that he " could not reveal the 
purport of it, even by a hint." Who can overstate the 
importance and solemnity of an occasion, calling from a 
man of Adams' cautiousness and generally undemonstrative 
nature, these burning words ? At such a moment, when wit- 
nessing his bitter grief at trusty men's falling away, and the 
fickleness of those who had hitherto been his supporters, 
Adams found the occasion to deepen more than ever his 
confidence in Washington's purity of heart and patriotism. 
He was entirely built up in his desire to do right ; his close 
application to discover it, and his deliberate and com- 
prehensive view of his country's affairs with all the world. 

O02 



2 3 4 JEFFERSON'S DISGUST AT ACTION OF FRANCE. 



Writing at that time, and speaking of men he characterized 
as " the anti-federalists and the Frenchified zealots," Adams 
said : " These have nothing now to do that I conceive of, but 
to ruin his character, destroy his peace, and injure his health. 
He supports all their attacks with firmness, and his health 
appears to have been very good." Under the apparent 
calmness there was bitter chafing of spirit which the dis- 
cernment of his counsellor and friend failed to see, but 
which, alas ! existed in great intensity. Amid these hours 
of sad reflection and intense anxiety, the great Chief had 
to endure what appears to have bordered on studied coldness 
on the part of one whose counsel might in the emergency 
have been most helpful. Jefferson more than stood aloof; 
he manifested an utter lack of sympathy, and to the heart 
of him whose trials he should have shared, his action must 
have borne the semblance of cold indifference. Irving tells 
us that, " While Washington was endeavouring to steer the 
vessel of State, amid the surges and blasts which were 
threatening on every side, Jefferson, who had hauled out of 
the storm, writes serenely from his retirement at Monticello, 
to his friend, Tenche Cox, at Paris : — 

" Your letters give a comfortable view of French affairs, 
and later events seem to confirm it. Over the foreign 
powers I am convinced they will triumph completely, and I 
cannot but hope that that triumph, and the consequent 
disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined, in order of 
events, to kindle the wrath of Europe against those who 
have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, and to 
bring at length, kings, nobles, and priests to the scaffolds 
which they have been so long deluging with human blood. 
I am still warm whenever I think of these scoundrels, 
though I do it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to 
contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne and potatoes. 
I have so completely withdrawn myself from these spectacles 



JEFFERSON LEADING A LIFE OF RETIREMENT. 285 



of usurpation and misrule, that I do not take a single news- 
paper, nor read one a month ; and I feel myself infinitely 
the happier for it." 

Irving remarks that " No one seemed to throw off the 
toils of office with more delight than Jefferson, or to betake 
himself with more devotion to the simple occupations of 
rural life. It was his boast, in a letter to a friend written 
some time after his return to Monticello, that he had seen 
no newspaper since he had left Philadelphia, and he should 
never take another newspaper of any sort. ' I think it is 
Montaigne,' writes he, 'who has said that ignorance is 
the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head ; I am 
sure it is true as to everything political, and shall endeavour 
to estrange myself to everything of that character.' Yet 
the very next sentence shows the lurking of the old party 
feud. ' I indulge myself in one political topic only ; that 
is, in declaring to my countrymen the shameless corruption 
of a portion of the representatives of the first and second 
Congresses, and their implicit devotion to the Treasury! ' 

In endeavouring to trace history, justice is a paramount 
duty. It is but fair towards Jefferson to bear in mind that 
his able and comprehensive report of the state of American 
trade with outside countries, specifying the various re- 
strictions and prohibitions which embarrassed, and in some 
instances almost ruined, its commerce, had as it were closed 
his labours as Secretary of State. He had been permitted 
to retire, and an act of Genet's transmitting to him trans- 
lations of the instructions given him by the Executive 
Council of France, requesting that the President would lay 
them before both Houses of Congress, and proposing to 
transmit successively other papers to be laid before them 
in like manner, had enabled him to do so with dignity and 
grace worthy of the great statesman. On the last day of 
1 793, Jefferson was enabled to inform Genet that he had 



286 JEFFERSON'S DIGNIFIED REBUKE OF GENET. 

laid his letter and its accompaniments before the President. 
"I have it in charge to observe," added he, "that your 
functions as the missionary of a foreign nation here, are 
confined to the transaction of the affairs of your nation 
with the Executive of the United States ; that the com- 
munications which are to pass between the Executive and 
legislative branches cannot be a subject for your interference, 
and that the President must be left to judge for himself 
what matters his duty or the public good may require him 
to propose to the deliberations of Congress. I have, there- 
fore, the honour of returning you the copies sent for 
distribution." 

Irving has rightly said, " Such was Jefferson's dignified 
rebuke of the presumptuous meddling of Genet; and, 
indeed, his whole course of official proceedings with that 
minister, notwithstanding his personal intimacy with him 
and his strong French partialities, is worthy of the highest 
approbation. Genet, who had calculated on Jefferson's 
friendship, charged him openly with having a language 
official and a language confidential ; but it certainly was 
creditable to him, as a public functionary in a place of high 
trust, that, in his official transactions, he could rise superior 
to individual prejudices and partialities, and consult only 
the dignity and interests of his country." 

A page from Sharpies' memorandum record, inscribed at 
Mount Vernon, is sorrowfully reminding as to the weariness 
of spirit endured by Washington at the time of Jefferson's 
retirement. It runs thus : — 

" During our walk from the cottage to Mount Vernon 
this morning, the Chief's conversation was mainly on what 
he termed ' Jefferson's desertion of me in an hour of more 
than perplexity, when everything seemed to run in wrong 
currents, and, above all, at a time when there were but few 
friends at hand whose judgment could have been relied on 



WASHINGTON DISCLOSES HIS DEEP ANXIETY. 287 



even if they themselves had been trustworthy. I was 
almost alone, left to bear the studied taunts of men who 
had been elevated into positions of which they were utterly 
unworthy, whose aspirations were as limitless as other mere 
self-seekers, and who in the hour of peril were to be found 
sneaking under cover, yet ready at any moment to inflict a 
stab whenever it could in secrecy be ventured.' " 

These were indeed piteous words from so great a man, 
especially from him who had rendered such services to his 
country. They should, however, be heard, if only to show 
the greatness of his nature ; how in the hour of deep trial 
v he could comfort himself under a good conscience and 
a serene external placidity — though racking under torture 
as wholly undeserved as it was uncalled for. But for these 
outpourings to Sharpies, who had evidently more than 
won his confidence, and to whom it seems to have been 
a relief to disburden himself, his countrymen would not 
have had revealed to them his heart's secrets; for history 
relates that he had been especially sensible of the talents 
and integrity displayed by Jefferson during the closing 
year of his secretaryship, and particularly throughout 
this French perplexity, and had recently made a last 
attempt, but an unsuccessful one, to persuade him to 
remain in the cabinet. On the same day as his letter to 
Genet, Jefferson addressed one to Washington, reminding 
him of his having postponed his retirement from office 
until the end of the year. "That term being now 
arrived," he wrote, " and my propensities to retirement 
becoming daily more and more irresistible, I now take the 
liberty of resigning the office into your hands. Be pleased 
to accept with my sincere thanks for all the indulgences 
which you have been so good as to exercise towards me in 
the discharge of its duties. Conscious that my need of 
them has been great, I have still ever found them greater, 



288 ASKS JEFFERSON TO RESUME PUBLIC DUTIES. 

without any other claim on my part than a firm pursuit of 
what has appeared to me to be right, and a thorough dis- 
dain of all means which were not as open and honourable 
as their object was pure. I carry into my retirement a lively 
sense of your goodness, and shall continue gratefully to 
remember it." 

Washington's acknowledgment, which was as follows, 
evidences that he made unavailing efforts to induce his 
continuance in office. " Since it has been impossible to 
prevent you to forego any longer the indulgence of your 
desire for private life, the event, however anxious I am to 
avert it, must be submitted to. But I cannot suffer you to 
leave your station without assuring you that the opinion 
which I had formed of your integrity and talents, and which 
dictated your original nomination, has been confirmed by 
the fullest experience, and that both have been eminently 
displayed in the discharge of your duty." 

In connection with Jefferson's retirement, which had 
occasioned such trial, it is gratifying to know that at the 
close of all, when death had removed the great Patriot from 
the scenes of mortification and strife, Jefferson, in a few 
measured and well-chosen words, sketched his comprehen- 
sive character, the result of long observation and cabinet 
experience, and written in after years, when there was no 
temptation to insincere eulogy : — 

" His integrity was most pure ; his justice the most 
inflexible I have ever known ; no motive of interest or con- 
sanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his 
decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the word a 
wise, a good, and a great man." 

The action of the Congress which assembled in December 
i 793, was generally hostile to Washington's intents. At its 
first meeting there were various causes of irritation acting in 
the public mind. Genet was busy with his perpetual 



WASHINGTON ON PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR. 2S9 

intrigues ; England did not show herself friendly, the old 
leaven was working in her more than suspicious dealing 
with America, and there was every indication of approaching 
war. Washington manifested his fears. In stating the 
measures he had taken in consequence of the war in Europe 
to protect the rights and interests of the United States, and 
maintain peaceful relations with the belligerent parties, he 
felt it his duty to press upon Congress the necessity of 
placing the country in a condition of complete defence. 
How solemn a lesson England has to learn from the ever-to- 
be-remembered words of the great Patriot, then uttered 
before the then newly-assembled Parliament of America ! 
If they were needed to such ears, how tenfold applicable to 
"the old country," not only then, but in all future time. 
Let every son of Britain hold them near at heart. 

"The United States," said he, "ought not to indulge a 
persuasion that, contrary to the order of human events, they 
will for ever keep at a distance those painful appeals to 
arms with which the history of every nation abounds. 
To avoid insult, we must be able to repel it ; to secure peace 
— one of the most powerful instruments of our prosperity 
— we must be at all times ready for war." 

Washington was the ardent desirer of universal peace. 
Himself a British subject, forced from her yoke, he saw 
with British eyes the danger of somnolent unpreparedness 
and gives expression to needs peculiarly applicable to the 
country which so recently had suffered misfortune in being 
deprived of his citizenship. 

Quaint old London has ever been foremost in the van of 
sympathizers with freedom. Robert Cary, who would have 
given his life in the cause of Washington, did not standalone 
in his deep sympathies with the great Patriot so dear to his 
soul. One Robert Vaughan, who at eventide smoked the 
calumet of peace in Cary's quaint dining-room, practically 

P p 



2f)0 



CHIMNEY-PIECE AT MOUNT VERNON. 



illustrated his devotion by shipping to Mount Vernon a 
marble chimney-piece, and which now stands there a speak- 
ing evidence of the old burgher love of the cause of freedom. 
Daniel Webster wandered among the haunts of deceased 
London worthies, where he found food for reflection, and 
could gauge popularity at its real worth. Who among us 
does not now realize that we who are removed by the vista 
of years from the petty passions of his day, reverse the 
decision arrived at in the lifetime of many public men, and as 




CHIMNEY PIECE AT MOUNT VERNON, PRESENTED BY ROBERT VAUGHAN. 

we place Webster by the side of Hamilton, we wonder that 
one age gave being to both ? — the interpretation of our day 
is that the nation, by a fatality of judgment, seemed to have 
exiled from the insignia, the form, the robe of power, men 
who ruled without it, causing as it were a dual government 
to be put in operation — that of place and that of mind. 




ROBERT FULTON. 



Reproduced by the Autotype Company, London. From the original by James Sharpies. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

Robert Fulton and Sharpies, as artists and men of science, close friends during 
many years — Sketch of Fulton's steam and torpedo discoveries — Sharpies' 
death — -The unfinished oil portraits and sketches of female beauties left by 
Sharpies — Vicissitudes through which many passed — Articles from the 
Boston papers— Testimony of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and Dr. 
Poole, Librarian of Chicago — The portraits' reception at Chicago, St. Paul. 
Cincinnati, and Philadelphia — Articles from the Chicago, Philadelphia, and 
Cincinnati papers — Testimony of Charles Henry Hart and W. G. Baker, of 
Philadelphia — Washington's high sense of duty in dealing with public 
appointments — Defence of Washington in the case of Andre" from the 
charges preferred by historians — Washington's illness and death — Pro- 
ceedings in the National Legislature consequent on his death — Rev. Dr. 
Bancroft on Washington. 

America has allowed the name of Fulton to drop in a degree 
through the gridiron by which she usually tests her greatest 
sons. Undoubtedly he was the pioneer in the application of 
steam power to purposes of navigation, and therefore ranks 
among the highest of the world's discoverers. He was a man 
of the greatest practical genius, and despite that a hundred 
years have passed into the abyss since he made his 
discoveries, yet in the matter of torpedoes the nations of 
the world are only just waking up to the knowledge that he 
lived. In the most important feature, that of a submarine 
vessel for war purposes, he was entirely successful ; and it 
is matter of history that he produced a torpedo which 
destroyed a vessel anchored in the Bay of New York. The 
French and English Governments, in common with that of 
his native country, failed in realizing the true nature and 
power of his inventions, though they were none the less 
important through their obtusity. At the time, his torpedo 
was looked upon, not as a substitute for the ordinary modes 
of warfare, but as a useful and powerful addition to the 

P p 2 



294 SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LOVELY WOMEN. 

black-beetle ravages had to be transferred to new canvases ; 
and one, a portrait of Mrs. Roger Morris, the Mary Phillipse, 
Washington's early love, was painted by Middleton, and is 
possessed of remarkable beauty. It is not known how it 
came into Sharpies' possession ; most probably for requested 
purpose of restoration. Sharpies worked upon it, Maclise 
completing. 

In the instance of these heads of female beauties said to 
have been "rubbed in" by Sharpies during visits to Governeur 
Morris, the Van Ransalaers, and also in Philadelphia and 
Baltimore, which " rubs in " were at his death, as stated, taken 
to England and sold by his widow ; very successful transfers 
to new canvases were accomplished under the advice of 
Maclise given by Macready in regard to them. Sharpies 
himself never attached money value to these, for the reason 
that the amount of work needed to make pictures of them 
always loomed as a spectre before his eyes. But for his love 
of Hamilton, and not a little through happy remembrance of 
the handsome women themselves — he being a man very 
alive to the charms of the " form divine " and " fascination of 
the witching countenance" — the "rubbings" would most 
likely have given place to other heads on the canvases. 
As Maclise said of these beautiful women, " Any one will 
recognize them as in the best manner of Romney. The 
painter Sharpies evidently aimed to follow his master, 
Romney. Each head is treated in thorough Romney 
style." Fond associations running back to Washington and 
to Hamilton, greatly endeared these to him, as theyrecalled to 
mind many happy balls at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New 
York, — hence these little else than skeleton sketches being 
held on to in the manner evidenced to the day of his death. 
Robert Cary must have purchased them of Mrs. Sharpies ; 
they do not appear to have fallen under the cruel hammer 
of the auctioneer who disposed of the American historian 



MACLISE FINISHES THE AMERICAN BEAUTIES. 295 



Dunlap for the equivalent of a few dollars. In themselves, 
the " rubbings " were of little value. Washington Irving had 
seen them when in England ; he too was amenable to female 
beauty, and probably when away from home felt that 
Sharpies had done well in selection as in promise of inten- 
tion. Washington Irving felt that something could be done 
with them. Macready knew Irving well when in America, 
and was enabled to enlist his deepest sympathy in the 
interesting work. Charles Leupp, of New York, at that 
time well off in the world, persuaded Macready to interest 
himself in the "rubbings," and Maclise stood more than a 
friend in working them up as he did. 

It seems little short of a miracle that these charming 
relics of an eventful historical past, of ever-increasing interest 
and value in hereafter time, should have escaped, and be 
in condition for perfect handing down. Maclise's beautiful 
work upon them, though retaining all the bold and classic 
style of Sharpies' master Romney, is strongly evidenced in 
each ; they are as fresh as though of yesterday's execution, 
and the beauteous ones themselves seem to look out of the 
canvases overjoyed at their renewed existence. It seems 
sad to dream of dividing them. They, as girls and women, 
loved each other after the fashion of rivals in ball as- 
semblies, they voyaged together across the seas, and passed 
through Maclise's fickle mint ordeal without a murmur, 
and are now a collection of charming women, discoursing 
eloquently of one of the most eventful periods of the 
world's history. Marvellous has been the providence 
watching over them. Dunlap in his History complains of 
Sharpies' widow having ruthlessly sold his portrait with a 
lot of others of his countrymen by auction, at Bath, in 
England. Who cares for Dunlap having passed under the 
hammer, so long as posterity has been bequeathed the 
precious legacy of the portraits this volume brings under 



296 BOSTON RENDERS HONOUR TO THE PORTRAITS. 



notice ? To have knocked down these fair houris would 
have been cruelly ungallant, and a national calamity. 

In Boston the Sharpies' portraits met with great honour 
at the hands of General Loring, the able and accomplished 
President of the Art Museum, who with the earnestness for 
which he is proverbial, collected as companions for the 
occasion the well-known portraits of the Chief by Peale> 
Copley, and other artists, hanging the entire collection 
together, chivalrously awarding the place of honour to the 
newly arrived visitors, who were ranged side by side with 
the prized paintings by Stuart ; the whole forming a galaxy 
such as had never before been seen in the city of art and 
refinement. Among the earliest visitors was Charles Wen- 
dell Holmes, who was intensely charmed with the Sharpies' 
revelation, and was almost a daily visitor during the period 
of their stay. Mr. Clements, the editor of the Boston 
Transcript, was the first of the eager throng, and on the 
following morning thus heralded the new-comers : — 

A NEW WASHINGTON. 
{From the Boston Transcript^) 

" What rejoicing would there not be if a new portrait of Shak- 
speare, which Shakspeare's wife pronounced the best ever taken 
and which bore the inherent evidence of being the work of a trained 
and able artist, should be brought to light ! What joy must patriotic 
Americans feel over a new portrait of George Washington, 
similarly well attested ! We realize this in the Sharpies' portraits 
of Washington. The fame of these pictures of Pater Patriae and 
his wife has occasionally reached this country through the reports 
of cultivated travellers ; but here we now have for a short while — 
it should be for ever — all three of these precious paintings, a full 
front and a profile of General Washington, and a profile of Mrs 
Washington. 

All portraits of Washington must fight their way to popular 
favour against the familiar one of Stuart. So ingrained is this in 
the affections and veneration of generations, that it is the ideal 
Washington — the standard, in fact, by which all others are 



THE "BOSTON TRAVELLER:' 297 

estimated. The Sharpies portraits have the good fortune to ' fit in ' 
with the standard Stuart — to supplement it, in effect, with realistic 
detail, and hence to carry conviction that it is near the truth as to 
its subject. There are some obvious allowances to be made for 
Stuart's original — the high colour, for instance ; nobody's cheeks 
were ever so rosy or eyes so blue as Washington's are portrayed in 
the Stuart. Again, the expression is preternaturally majestic, a 
fortunate and a noble fault, to be sure. In this age, however, art 
seeks more and more to come at the very facts, and too much of 
dignity and ideality is apt to bring upon itself a reaction of scoffing. 
But let it be understood that Sharpies' Washington is not lacking 
in the blended loftiness, purity, and sweetness of Stuart's, while 
adding thereto a visible element of virile force and human energy 
which must have belonged to the victorious general of our desperate 
arms, but which has to be imagined under the serene exterior 
Stuart has left us. 

Ample evidence exists that Mr. Sharpies had a habit of succeed- 
ing both in art and in society. He was evidently the fashion in 
the American high life of the beginning of the century." 

The Boston Traveller was equally marked in its treat- 
ment : — 

" The Sharpies pictures of Washington have created a very 
proper sensation. We have never cared for the counterfeit pre- 
sentments of the Father of his Country. They generally represent 
him as a man who might go through life saying 'prunes and 
prisms.' In most of his pictures the unlying youth is represented 
as having developed himself into a great master of moral deport- 
ment. He always is made to look 'fixed up' — features and all. 
He wears his nose as if it was only by a tremendous muscular 
effort that he kept it from turning up at the rest of humanity. 
His lips generally have the pursed-up look of a man who is always 
spitting out tiny shreds of morals. Now the Sharpies portraits do 
nothing of the kind. General Washington unbent to Sharpies ; 
and Sharpies was artist enough to fix the likeness of the unbent 
President on to canvas. The portrait of Martha Washington in 
her every-day clothes is a profile, and full of sweetness and dignity. 
As likenesses, these portraits were considered in their day the best 
ever made of the Washingtons. They certainly give one a stronger 
impression of life behind them than do the delicious pink-and-white 
portraits by Stuart." 

Q q 



298 THE "BOSTON COURIER" AND "HERALD." 



From the Boston Courier. 

" The Sharpies Washington pictures as works of art are invalu- 
able, the flesh-tints good, the modelling excellent, and the general 
execution, if possibly a thought formal, beautifully clear and direct 
As portraits the three pictures ar^ simply inestimable, and the 
comparison between the pictures of Sharpies and those of Stuart, 
by the side of which they are now at the Museum placed, is in the 
highest degree interesting. Whatever be the ultimate decision 
which artist has best portrayed his sitter, the fact is indisputable 
that the Sharpies full-face view is far more human, alive, and 
vivacious than the Stuart. In Washington Irving's words, ' the 
Sharpies portrait gives a better idea of the innate energy of Wash- 
ington's character.' 

It is to be hoped that by some happy circumstance they may 
ultimately be owned in this country." 

From the Boston Herald. 

" The Sharpies paintings show the trained and practised artist 
but they are also marked by an individuality which speaks elo- 
quently of their faithfulness as likenesses. Compared with the 
Stuarts they are bolder, more solid, and more grey in tone. The 
full-face of Washington shows him to be a man of force, dignity, 
and strength. There is none of the narrowness which the face by 
Stuart has always seemed to us to indicate. If true, it seemed 
brought into offensive prominence, or what may be termed, in a 
certain sense, priggishness. Stuart, too, in his love of colour, may 
well be supposed to have exaggerated the ruddy hue of Washing- 
ton's face. In the Sharpies portraits, however, this excess of colour 
is less marked, and the whole tone of the head is rather grey and 
harmonious. For a strong, heroic manhood, one would prefer the 
Sharpies type to the Stuart, and, indeed, it seems more consistent 
with the life, career, and acts of the man. As to the portrait of 
Lady Washington, the Sharpies profile, it is simple, charming, and 
characteristic ; yet we cannot put it before the Stuart, with its 
exquisite delicacy of complexion and feature, and its suggestion of 
a gentle mien, united with a firm and lofty nature. There is a like 
indication of this character in the Sharpies picture. It is unmis- 
takable in the carriage of the head and the expression of the 
small part of the face that is visible. This picture is supplemen- 



THE '• BOSTON TOST." 299 

tary and emphatically corroborative of the Stuart. The typical 
Lady Washington lace cap and muslin neckerchief appear in the 
Sharpies portrait. They are painted with skill and grace, and 
give a charm to the picture which no change of fashion can ever 
destroy." 

From the Boston Post. 

" The portrait of Martha Washington, a profile, is a picture of rare 
sweetness and purity, a face to admire and to love. It is painted 
with a nicety and delicacy of touch that is in the highest degree 
charming. The whole three are certainly very fine works of art. 
In some respects they are not inferior — heresy though it be to say 
it — to our much admired and much loved Stuarts. One cannot 
fail, however, to notice in general characteristics the striking 
similarity of likeness between the works of the two artists, and this 
would seem to be pretty conclusive evidence of the faithfulness of 
the portraiture in both cases. The work of Sharpies lacks some- 
what in the grace and the pure, charming quality inherent in the 
Stuarts, but it presents us with fully as striking likenesses. The 
faces are firmly and carefully modelled, and while the flesh tones 
give an indication of the ruddiness of the Stuart portraits, it is in 
a greatly modified degree, that seems much more natural, life-like, 
and pleasing. The full-face portrait is very impressive. The 
features are strongly marked, the expression is very pronounced, 
and we are shown a man of vigour, of determination, of dignity 
almost amounting to austerity. The real man seems revealed to 
us as in no other portrait that we have seen. These Sharpies 
pictures would be a priceless acquisition to our art museum, to 
hang for ever beside the Stuarts, and would grow in value, interest 
and attractiveness as the years go by. They would be an inspira- 
tion in art and in patriotism that would far out-value any sum of 
money that might be paid for them." 

Arrived at Chicago, they were welcomed by the late 
Thomas Hoyne, one of the pioneers in Chicago's greatness. 
The fair city Hoyne had so zealously aided to re-create 
from the fire of annihilation, never boasted of a nobler or 
more patriotic citizen. They were introduced with great 
honour by N. K. Fairbank, Franklin MacVeagh, Professor 

Q q 2 



RECEPTION OF THE PORTRAITS IN CHICAGO. 



Fraser of the University, ex-Governor Bross, W. G. Hibbard, 
F. D. Gray, and others. The Rev. Professor David Swing, 
one of the most gifted pulpit orators living, was their 
willing sponsor in the Western Metropolis, receiving the 
paintings at his own residence, which he threw open for a 
whole day to guests specially invited by him to a reception 
in their honour. Edgar L. Wakeman, representative in 
Chicago of the Louisville Gazette, manifested an earnest- 
ness in their behalf not exceeded by any of the many warm 
adherents who flocked to their standard. He was unceasing 
in urging friends to attend the levies and enjoy the presence 
of the paintings, from which, as he publicly expressed, he 
had himself derived gratification exceeding anything he 
had ever before experienced. Edgar Wakeman was as 
warm in his devotion to their English representative, a 
stranger, as to the portraits themselves. 

It was during their stay in Chicago that the Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher, of New York, visited the portraits, he being 
there lecturing at the time. They were specially for him 
placed under the electric light. His inspection was a pro- 
longed one, and he expressed himself in terms of warmest 
delight, remarking, " I have enjoyed these portraits far more 
than I can express. Here, indeed, we see Washington I 
They must never be permitted to leave the country. No 
other has any right in them. I am not as much impressed 
■with the profile as with Martha, but neither can ever die so 
long as these portraits exist. Whoever looks upon them 
must feel in the actual presence of the living many 

W. F. Poole, LL.D., Librarian of the Chicago Public 
Library (author of the wondrous volume, " Index to 
Periodical Literature," a monument of the untiring patience, 
industry, and great ability of the writer), who for many 
years had charge of the Stuart Portraits of Washington 
at the Athenaeum, Boston, issued the following : — 



DR. POOLES TESTIMONY TO THE PORTRAITS. 3c 



"Public Library, Chicago, Dec. 24, 1882. 

" I have examined the original portraits of Washington 
and Mrs. Washington, by Sharpies, with delight, and with 
a feeling of surprise that pictures of so great merit, often 
seen and described by travellers in England, are so little 
known in this country, even by persons who have given 
special attention to the portraits of Washington. It is, 
indeed, a great privilege that we are able to see them in 
Chicago. 

Our ideas as to the faces of Washington and his wife 
are derived chiefly from the portraits by Stuart, the cele- 
brated originals of which, owned by the Boston Athenaeum, 
are now deposited in the Art Museum in Boston. For 
thirteen years, when Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, 
the Stuart originals were in my charge, and, in my supreme 
admiration of their merits, I had not imagined that any 
portraits could challenge comparison with them. As an 
artistic and almost inspired treatment of the subjects, I 
still think that the Stuart pictures have no rivals ; but as 
actual portraits of a real man and a real woman, I am 
ready to confess that the Sharpies portraits are the more 
satisfactory. The latter, besides having great artistic 
merits, are a commentary on and interpretation of the 
former. The mouth of Washington in the Stuart is vague 
and uncertain ; in the Sharpies, taken earlier in life, it is 
distinct and well-formed, giving a thoughtful and energetic 
expression to the face. The colouring of Stuart is so 
brilliant as to suggest the query whether roses and lilies 
were ever so blended in the human countenance as in that 
of the Father of his Country. In Sharpies we see precisely 
what his complexion was. The same treatment of Stuart 
in Mrs. Washington's picture we accept without a question ; 
for we are glad to believe that in her face she was the most 
brilliant of her sex, as she was confessedly in character 



3 o2 THE "CHICAGO TRIBUNE" ON THE PORTRAITS. 

and accomplishments, the most lovely woman in her day. 
Sharpies' treatment of her complexion was less gallant, and 
in a lower key ; but, doubtless, and alas ! as it looked to his 
English and realistic eye — a beautiful woman, nevertheless. 
In standing before the Sharpies portraits, and vividly 
remembering the Stuart pictures, I was especially gratified 
to see that each of these great painters confirms the other, 
though painting at different times, with different national 
sentiments, and from different standpoints. The Sharpies 
portraits ought to find a permanent home in the United 
States. W. F. Poole." 

In common with all other places in which the portraits 
were exhibited to the citizens, the Press of Chicago was 
unanimous as to their merits and historical value. A few 
only of the articles can now be reproduced. 

From the Chicago Tribune. 

" Lovers of art and of their country will be glad to learn that 
Chicago is honoured in a visit of the celebrated Sharpies portraits 
of General Washington and his wife Martha, painted by the 
English artist of that name in 1796. They have already been 
exhibited in New York and Boston, and excited the admiration of 
connoisseurs, particularly in the latter city, where they were given 
place among other notable portraits of the Father of his Country 
hung in the Boston Fine Art Museum. The paintings are three in 
number, two of them being portraits of the General, one a full face, 
the other a profile. The former presents him in full military 
uniform, giving animated expression to his native dignity and 
majesty of carriage and bearing ; while the other represents him 
in ordinary evening dress, and commends itself at once for its 
combined simplicity and manly energy and conspicuous force of 
character. The portrait of Martha, his devoted wife, alike the 
sharer of his trials and his honours, is eminently winning and 
gracious, representing her in quiet and matronly garb, full of 
mingled sweetness and light, and seemingly transfusing into the 
surrounding atmosphere some of her own womanliness and tender 
affection and grace." 



"INTER OCEAN" AND " WEEKLY MAGAZINE." 303 

From the Inter Ocean. 

" The celebrated Sharpies portraits of General and Lady 
Washington, now brought to this country, recommend themselves 
warmly to the interest and affection of our people. There are two 
likenesses of the General, one a face picture, one a profile. The 
latter is perhaps a finer picture, artistically considered, and appeals 
more to our appreciation of Washington. It is the former picture 
which comes into direct comparison with the pictures of him 
engraved from the Stuart, Peale, and other portraits which we are 
accustomed to see. There is always something a little aggravating 
in the benignity of the usual pictures of Washington. While one 
acknowledges fully their strength and beauty, they give one an 
idea of intrusiveness in his benignity. Before them one remembers 
instinctively the little boy who never told a lie. The feeling comes 
unbidden of a sort of assertion of virtue. ' He poses,' as the 
French say. In the Sharpies portrait there is none of this mis- 
interpretation. The full force and grace of his noble and dignified 
manhood is felt. 

Engravings of this picture should go into every home and school- 
room in this country, to give new impulse to the patriotic reverence 
which we feel for the Father of his Country. 

The portrait of Lady Washington is marked by singular sweet- 
ness and dignity, and accompanies most fittingly the portrait of 
her husband. These portraits ought never to be allowed to leave 
Chicago, if there is money enough in the pockets of one or more 
public-spirited citizens to buy them. These are the best portraits 
of Washington, and would form a noble nucleus for that collection 
which is certain to be formed here within the next decade or two. 
It would be a gift to the city which might make some man's name 
always gratefully remembered." 

From the Chicago Weekly Magazine. 

" Who that has looked upon those grand old portraits of General 
and Lady Washington, and then gone out into the busy thorough- 
fare, but has felt the better for the half hour in their presence ! 
Painted from life by the acute, observing artist, they give back to us 
something more than we can get from any of the counterfeit present- 
ments which have made the face of our first President familiar to 
every schoolboy. Walk through the gallery of old Independence 
Hall at Philadelphia, where the portraits of the men illustrious in 
Continental times are enshrined, or the Museum in Boston where 



3 o 4 COLONEL If. F. VILAS A FREQUENT VLSITOR. 

the Stuart pictures of Washington hang, and those pink and white 
faces in powdered wigs that look out of faded frames do not make 
us feel as if we would like to have known the men. In the 
Sharpies portraits the artist caught the General when ' off duty.' 
We see the man, not the President, and exclaim, as Emerson 
did : ' I would gladly have crossed the Atlantic to behold these 
inestimable paintings — our true Washingtons ! Future ages will 
glory in their existence ! ' 

What enthusiasm Longfellow and Washington Irving and 
Bryant felt at sight of these portraits is attested in autograph letters. 
President Arthur placed the grand drawing-room at the White 
House at their disposal, where they drew such a coterie of guests as 
any queen might be proud of; poets, artists, historians.critics, lawyers, 
jurists, preachers and eminent citizens, all came to honour and admire 
the Father of his Country, who lives again in these canvases." 

During the period of the paintings' stay in Chicago, they 
received several visits from Colonel the Honourable William 
F. Vilas, the great orator of the North- West, a loyal wor- 
shiper at their shrine, who eagerly avails of every opportunity 
to pay reverent duty. Colonel Vilas is a New Englander, and 
has been wisely selected by President Cleveland to be of his 
Cabinet. Since the days of the mighty Daniel Webster, 
America has not produced any man of higher oratorical 
power than Vilas. Associated with him in the earliest 
acquaintance and appreciation of the Sharpies Washingtons 
was Colonel James-Knight, of Madison, Illinois, a man of 
high culture and refinement, who has rendered his country 
good service in the regular army. 

President Cleveland, desirous of marking the period of his 
Presidency, hoped to secure in Washington city a grand 
display of the portraits of the fair charmers who in the 
Patriot's day graced his Court. The realization is deferred, 
pending the hoped-for acquisition of the portrait of Robert 
Fulton. Whenever it comes off, it must prove attractive 
beyond precedent. 

Great appreciation fell to the portraits in Philadelphia 



CHARLES HENRY HART ON THE PORTRAITS. 305 

during a short rest in Earle's Gallery. On arrival they were 
welcomed by Charles Henry Hart, Wm. S. Baker, and 
others, and during their Court holding were visited by many 
thousands of persons. 

Charles Henry Hart, an eminent lawyer and writer of 
Philadelphia, gifted as a scholar and literary man of 
highest refinement, a leader in the Council of the Pennsyl- 
vania Art Academy, and a recognized authority throughout 
America in everything appertaining to Washington por- 
traiture and history, proved their loving henchman in this 
delightful city of culture and refinement. Charles H. Hart 
has recorded of the Sharpies as follows : — 

" Philadelphia, 5 mo. 4, 1883. 

Familiar as I am with the portraiture of Washington, 
and well acquainted with the pastel portraits made by 
Sharpies, I feared that though I might find some interest 
in the Sharpies oil paintings of Washington and his wife 
(known to have been in England since the time of their 
execution by Sharpies for his friend, Mr. Cary, in London), 
yet that I should find them so deficient in artistic merit 
that their value as likenesses would necessarily be greatly 
diminished. I am glad to say that in this I was agreeably 
surprised, as they are decidedly meritorious as works of 
art, and the three-quarter face portrait in military costume 
gives especially every indication of being a likeness. In its 
lines it is not very dissimilar to the Houdon bust, the Pine 
portrait, and that by Savage, which, to my mind, is good 
evidence that it is like the living man ; in other words, it is 
a life-like portrait. Its unlikeness to the ideal Boston 
Athenaeum portrait by Stuart is no argument against its 
correctness ; for that picture can impress no calm, thoughtful 
student of the subject with the feelings that it is a likeness 
of the man. Stuart's Washington is a great painter's one 
great failure. Charles Henry Hart." 

r r 



5 o6 TESTIMONY OF IV. S. BAKER, OF PHILADELPHIA. 



W. S. Baker, of Philadelphia, author of a handsomely 
printed volume of over 200 pages in royal quarto, " The 
Engraved Portraits of Washington, with Notices of the 
Originals and brief Biographical Sketches of the Painters," 
published by Lindsay and Baker, Philadelphia ; and also 
author of " The Antiquity of Engraving, and the Utility and 
Pleasure of Prints," and of a work, "William Sharp, Engraver, 
and his Works;" also, "American Engravers and their 
Works," — a literate who has devoted his time to matters 
bearing on Washington, has thus publicly observed in 
regard to the Sharpies Washingtons : — 

" Philadelphia, April 21, 1884. 

The sight of the autotypes of the two portraits of 
Washington and that of Martha Washington, by Sharpies, 
renews the pleasant surprise of twelve months ago when I 
examined the originals. 

While the profile was familiar to me through pastel 
copies made by the painter, the military portrait was 
entirely new, and I found both to be much superior in 
artistic merit to what I had expected. The profile I have 
always considered an admirable likeness, and the full-face 
not onlv impressed me as a decided portrait, but as the 
work of an artist of no mean pretensions, simple in treat- 
ment, and harmonious in colour. 

I regret that these canvases are not retained in this 
country, as they would be a valuable addition to our know- 
ledge of Washington portraiture, which, so far as the public 
is concerned, is limited in painting to the Stuart head ; 
something to admire, but we imagine not so faithful in pre- 
sentment as the Sharpies, the Pine, or the Savage, all 
which profess similar characteristics and traits in common 
with the Houdon bust, an undoubted portrait. 

William S. Baker." 



ARTICLE FROM THE "PHILADELPHIA RECORD." 307 

The Philadelphia Record, speaking of the portraits' 
arrival in that city, observed : — 

" How deeply interesting is everything bearing upon the 
Sharpies Washington portraits. How Sharpies, a success- 
ful English portrait painter, being here in 1 796, was com- 
missioned by Robert Cary, Washington's confidant and 
English agent, to put the General's face and form on 
canvas, in order that the Cary family might have them to 
all time ; how Washington gave the artist sittings at Mount 
Vernon, dressed in his Continental uniform, and how suc- 
cessful Sharpies was. He finished the first portrait late 
one afternoon, Washington sitting to the end. Then 
Washington dressed for dinner. When he returned, 
Sharpies, who was touching his portrait here and there, 
struck by his aesthetic costume, asked to be allowed to paint 
him in it. The good-natured hero consented, and the result 
was another good portrait — this time in profile. Mrs. 
Washington had taken a great interest in the artist's work. 
When it was finished she was so well pleased with it that 
she paid him a handsome fee to paint a portrait of herself, 
to be sent to England with those of her husband. Sharpies 
was as successful with this as with the others. They were 
excellent portraits, realistic to the last degree, and better in 
some respects than that of Stuart. The Cary family has 
exhibited them ever since with great pride. Many dis- 
tinguished Americans who have been abroad have seen and 
approved them. Washington Irving declared that he had 
never known the great General until he saw these portraits. 
He wanted to make drawings of them for his ' Life of 
Washington,' but a clause in their deed of settlement 
prevented it. Emerson, when beholding these portraits in 
their English home, quietly remarked, apropos of the portrait 
of Mrs. Washington, ' What a blessing, Martha, you 
unexpectedly conferred on your country ;' and so said the 

R r 2 



308 ARTICLE FROM THE " PHILADELPHIA RECORD >." 

rest. But, by-and-by, the Cary family settlement ran out 
through efflux of time, and the famous portraits came home 
to America to see and be seen. They are out West now, 
giving the pork packers and the grain brokers a chance to 
bid for them. It wouldn't be such a bad investment for a 
pork packer. He would become famous in the art world in 
a day. The first man who saw the portraits on their return 
to this country was President Arthur. The English gentle- 
man who brought them out called on the President. He 
told the President their story, and then said that he would 
like to have his Excellency see them. ' I shall be glad to,' 
said the President. ' But,' urged the representative, ' you 
must receive them in state. They have been owned in 
England well-nigh a hundred years, and now that they're 
here I have made it my first business to come and see you, 
and we expect you to receive them formally, that is, in a 
manner befitting your high office and becoming their position 
in the eyes of the world.' ' H'm,' said the President, 
adding, doubtfully, ' I don't know about my engagements.' 
' Well, then,' said the gentleman, ' if unfortunately it should 
be inconvenient to your Excellency to render the honour 
their English owners consider to be their due, they will 
have to voyage back to England without being unboxed.' 
' That's pretty stiff,' said the President thoughtfully ; ' but 
I like your manner, and I'll do what you ask.' And he 
did it, like the true patriot and gentleman he is ; and 
President Arthur has the satisfaction and pleasure of having 
given them a right royal welcome. They were exhibited 
in the Blue Parlour, and the President and members of the 
Cabinet paid their respects to these grand memorials of the 
nation's early days." 

A story went the round of the papers at the time, stating 
that the President had a grand supper for a select party of 
friends in this said Blue Parlour, on the evening with the 



/. A. WHEELOCK, OF ST. PAUL. 309 

Washingtons, and that the gratification of himself and 
guests was unbounded. On the night following, his 
Excellency passed some hours alone with the pictures ; the 
number of cigar stumps said to have been collected in the 
morning was clear evidence that President Arthur's interview 
with the father of his country was a prolonged one. This 
was the newspaper gossip at the time of the pictures being 
in Washington. 

To meet the wishes of one of America's most gifted sons, 
J. A. Wheelock, editor and co-proprietor of the Pioneer 
Press, the portraits journeyed on to St. Paul and Minnea- 
polis, resting awhile in Milwaukie. Providentially, their 
departure had been accidentally delayed, or they would have 
been burnt up in that horrible human holocaust fire in the 
Milwaukie Hotel, where they would just have arrived. 
Happily a better fate awaited them in a worthy reception at 
the hands of the Honourable C. L. Colby, William Plankin- 
ton, R. G. Frackelton and their gifted wives. St. Paul and 
Chicago were, perhaps, of the few cities to which they jour- 
neyed, the places in which they seemed most at home ; 
certainly they were nowhere more appreciated. In St. Paul 
especially they enjoyed an ovation from first to last. J. A. 
Wheelock may be said to have been their Grand High 
Chamberlain from the hour of entering the railway depot 
until they finally took leave. He received them, and offi- 
ciated at their departure. He was daily in the presence 
chamber, and afterwards, having voyaged to England, 
looked in at their English home in Sussex, hoping to render 
further homage. J. A. Wheelock, a man of rare attractions 
and loving character, admittedly one of the most finished 
writers of the great North-West, rejoices in a treasured wife 
of marked attractions, of the family of the mighty orator, 
Daniel Webster. It was Wheelock's influence that drew 
the portraits so long a distance from their base, well re- 



3ro PRESIDENT J. J. HILL, OF ST. PAUL. 

warded, however, in the enthusiastic reception experienced 
in the beautifully located and stirring city owing him so 
much, where they rejoiced to tarry, and where they enjoyed 
the bounteous hospitality of that truly public-spirited and 
true patriot, President J. J. Hill, owner of the Sharpies 
portraits of Jefferson, Adams, and Munroe. President Hill 
and his earnestly patriotic wife paid great honour to the 
Father of his Country and Martha during their sojourn in 
St. Paul, and it is matter of much regret that the occasion 
could not then be availed of to exhibit the portraits in 
company with the several ex-Presidents whose portraits by 
Sharpies President Hill is the worthy owner. 

The good Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, yielded to no 
man in his veneration for the portraits. When in St. Paul, 
they proved an almost daily attraction to him ; he was 
unceasing in urging friends to seize the opportunity of 
viewing them. ; Bishop Whipple wrote very earnestly 
regarding them, especially pointing out in forcible language 
that none of the other portraits of Washington disclosed 
to him the religious light of the Patriot's character, and 
, which he realized so vividly in the Sharpies portraits. 

Murat Halstead, one of the most brilliant writers in 
America, was their sponsor in Cincinnati. As chief editor 
he heralded their arrival in a leading article in the Cin- 
cinnati Gazette •. — j 

" He who sees the portraits of Washington by Sharpies 
feels that he is looking upon a true likeness of the Father 
of his Country. In like manner does the portrait of Martha 
Washington impress the beholder with its life-like truth. 
And this, in its naturalness, and in the quaint cap and 
kerchief, is a nobler face than any which the artists have 
made in the idealizations of her portrait. She looks like 
the peer of so great a man, and as if every inch a queen. 

There is a lack of confidence in the universal pictures of 



CINCINNATI GAZETTE" ON THE PORTRAITS. 311 



Washington, in the feeling that the disposition of artists to 
improve on the portrait of a great man to equal his fame, 
has made it a process of evolution ; but in these portraits, 
taken by an English artist of high character, at the time 
when each was sixty-four years of age, and with their 
authenticity beyond all question, the beholder can see the 
man and the woman as they looked living. 

They are also of the high art of portrait painting, life- 
like in expression, admirable in colouring, and the features 
standing out from the canvas like sculpture. Two paintings 
of Washington, one in front, the other in profile, complete 
the view. To the American these must be the most 
interesting of all portraits, and this interest will increase 
with time. The fame of Washington will never die, and 
succeeding generations will more and more desire to see 
how the Father of his Country looked. 

Nor is this interest American alone. The whole world 
recognized the greatness of Washington's character. It is 
hardly less esteemed by the English, to whose Government 
he was a rebel, than by his countrymen. This happy 
fortune in fame among political enemies has no parallel. 
By the civilized world Washington is recognized as the 
grandest character of his century, if not of all history. 

Nor is this greatness the evolution of tradition. It was 
recognized by his contemporaries and by the whole world- 
while he lived. It is established by contemporary history. 
We have records of what was charged upon^him by truculent 
party hostility in times of hot excitement. Out of all this 
does he come with a pure and more exalted character. 

His country is the monument of his greatness, alike in 
its independence and in its National Union. No one can 
say with confidence that the first could have been gained 
without the confidence in Washington which held the 
troops when the feeble Government had almost abandoned 



3 i2 " CINCINNATI GAZETTE" ON THE PORTRAITS. 

them, or without the military ability which achieved much 
with small means ; nor that the last could have been esta- 
blished without Washington's statesmanship and unbounded 
popularity. The people's confidence in him overcame their 
jealousy of newly written forms of government. 

In a larger sense than we think when we repeat the 
familiar ascription, was Washington the Father of his 
Country, and First in War, First in Peace, and First in the 
Hearts of his Countrymen. The affection and admiration 
of his countrymen have a solid foundation in the greatness 
of his character. Every American wants to look upon his 
likeness. In these portraits he can feel that he sees the 
veritable man, and the woman who was a fitting mate. 
They should be owned in America, and placed where 
generation after generation of Americans may come to 
behold them." 

This eminent writer, recurring to the subject in a second 
leading article in the same journal, further wrote : — 

" One's interest and enthusiasm are increased by a fami- 
liarity with these portraits, and to those who have never 
seen a veritable painting of Washington from life, the pre- 
sent opportunity is one for which they may be highly grate- 
ful. The feeling is one of agreeable disappointment, that 
of seeing the ' Father of his Country ' (we speak of the 
three-quarter view) in a plain, every-day expression of face, 
not the least forbidding to the humblest member of his great 
democratic family, yet full of noble dignity and sweetness, 
to command equally respect and love. Stuart's Washington 
is a ' Father ' for ' State occasions,' to which suspicion 
attaches that the artist had induced an attitudinizing of 
features of the ' prunes and prisms ' order which he never 
truly wore. That his mien upon occasion was more grave 
and mysterious than here represented, is possible ; but the 
intense honesty of this portrait, removed from the faintest 



THE "PHILADELPHIA PRESS." 313 

pencil stroke of flattery, and yet so lofty and so tender, 
touches the heart of the natural man as we had never 
thought possible. A hundred years are annihilated, and he 
is — an undreamed-of pleasure — our own flesh and blood 
Washington of to-day. 

That there is not all in this face in point of character that 
Washington possessed, we may concede. It requires a very 
great master to accomplish so much as to give the highest 
expression of character with the literal features of his sub- 
ject ; nevertheless, it is, while simple in expression, noble in 
character and artistic in treatment. The soft depth of the 
eyes, in colour and in feeling, is quite unusual. The frills 
and pale yellow collar of the charming old Continental coat 
and the yellow epaulettes, give a touch of colour not in 
either of the other portraits, each of which are profiles. The 
steely-gray of the high cap and neckerchief of plain Mrs. 
Washington give a severity in tone that would be very 
trying to a less kindly face ; and even for her, pleased as 
one may be to see her, as well as the General, in the pendant 
portrait, in every-day costume, yet one could wish a silver 
touch of colour in the soft head- and neck-wear. The fami- 
liarity of the profile of Washington comes from the fact 
that it is like a photograph of the Houdin statue of Wash- 
ington at Richmond, Va. All in all, one is quite willing to 
believe, with the members of the Washington family, that 
' the Sharpies portraits were by far the best and truest 
representations ' of the noble pair. We may esteem our- 
selves most fortunate that these portraits should remain 
where they fitly belong — in our own country. They should 
be the property of the nation most emphatically." 

From the "Philadelphia Press.' 1 
Opportunities for public benefaction are constantly arising, 
and the family of Dives, more than ever in the history of 

S s 



3 i4 THE PORTRAITS IN PHILADELPHIA. 



humanity, are awaking to the fact that, since they cannot 
take their treasures with them into the unseen, they can 
make no better disposition of them than to dedicate them 
to some public interest. The time is coming when, instead 
of waiting for death to bring an uncertain issue to their 
projected posthumous plans, they will see the infinitely 
greater pleasure to be gained by taking charge of their own 
donations. Suppose some public-spirited man should build 
a really beautiful bridge across the Schuylkill, what better 
monument could he raise for his own glory and the glory of 
his city ? 

Every day, fashionable people squander small fortunes in 
giving dinner-parties, the only fruit of which are indigestions 
and headaches. A hundred citizens of Philadelphia might 
spend only their surplus in wise charity, instead of heaping 
it up to be dissipated by spendthrift heirs. 

At the present time there is a peculiarly tempting chance 
for some philanthropist. There are on exhibition at Earle's 
galleries three paintings which ought to find a permanent 
home in this city. They are the portraits of George 
Washington and his wife, painted by Sharpies in 1 796. 
One of the three represents the general in military dress ; 
the other in that of the civilian. The third is a delightful 
picture of Martha Washington, in simple home attire in mob 
cap and lace. It is the universal testimony of all who have 
seen these portraits, that they are the most attractive of all 
that have been painted. Washington Irving, thirty years 
ago, wrote that it was a matter for national regret that the 
Sharpies Washington portrait, which was exhibited in New 
York at that time, could not be allowed to rest in America. 
The legal difficulties which then stood in the way have been 
removed, and the English family into whose possession they 
have come are willing to part with them for a fair con- 
sideration. 



THE PHILADELPHIA PRESS EULOGIES. 315 



America is certainly " the natural home " for such master- 
pieces, and they ought to be so placed that they should be 
familiar objects to the rising generations. It would at first 
thought seem appropriate to have them at the National 
Capitol, but in many respects this would be inadvisable. 
The risk of destruction or damage is too great. No better 
place could be found for them than in the Philadelphia 
Academy of the Fine Arts. Why should not some wealthy 
citizen, or a few wealthy citizens, prevent the further 
wandering of these noble works of art ? The gain to the 
city would be obvious, and the fame that would result to the 
donors would be enduring. 

From the " Cincinnati News." 

The Sharpies Washingtons are truly nationals. Tin- 
principal portrait represents almost a full front view of the 
Father of his Country in his general's uniform. The second 
is a profile in the evening dress of the period. The por- 
trait of Lady Washington is also a profile. In all the 
modelling is beautifully soft, without losing anything of the 
character or precision of line which makes one feel that 
these portraits must be likenesses. The colouring is not 
high, but impresses one with the same sense of exactness 
and truth that is felt in the drawing. The accessories, 
draperies, and background are finely simple and subor- 
dinated to the faces. In fact, each portrait, as a whole, is 
so simply and unpretentiously painted that it takes a con- 
scious effort to direct the attention to the way the work is 
done. The best description of the pictures would be the 
effect which they produce upon the beholder, were that 
describable. One hardly feels like sitting in the presence of 
these pictures. Looking at these calm, benignant, gracious 
faces, with their evidences of thought, experience, culture, 
and power, one can realize something of human perfecti- 

S s 2 



3 1 6 THE " C INC INN A TI NE J I r S." 

bility, the possibility of fully rounded manhood and woman- 
hood, of which the fractional lives most of us lead seem but 
the shadow. Here is the best that the old world has of 
blood, culture, and power, with the superadded influence 
and incitement of a new world at its most eventful period. 
It is not a difficult matter, looking at this portrait, to under- 
stand why Washington — like Caesar in the act, but purer 
and more sincere in the motive — had to put aside a kingly 
crown. If ever there was an uncrowned king, this was he. 
We earnestly trust there is every prospect of these grand old 
national portraits being left to rest in America, their proper 
home. The English owners are presumed to prefer the 
pictures continuing to be held there, though we confess 
it appears to us on narrow, prejudiced grounds. The pic- 
tures were painted in America, and if Mr. Cary had lived to 
see their universal appreciation here, he would gladly have 
restored them to this nation. It seems to be an act of 
barbarism to withhold these portraits from the people of this 
country, and we hesitate to believe in their probable return. 
There are thousands of individual patriots in this, the native 
home of the portraits, who are ready and willing to buy 
them, ay, and give more dollars for them than the entire 
British nation could get subscribed for the purpose. Any 
city in America will find the money. To talk of their going 
back to England is idle nonsense. What do we care about 
the British National Portrait Gallery being without a 
Washington ? Let it get one where it can, but it must not 
be allowed to annex the Sharpies portraits. 

The writer feels he would be wanting in duty if he omitted 
recording in this volume Washington's high sense of honour 
and rectitude in reference to public appointments, so abun- 
dantly evidenced by his letter to Mr. Carter, who had 
married his niece. 



WASHINGTON'S HIGH SENSE OF HONOUR. 317 

In another letter to a gentleman, soliciting an appoint- 
ment for a friend, he wrote : — 

" From the moment when the necessity had become more 
apparent," said he, " and as it were inevitable, I anticipated, 
with a heart filled with distress, the ten thousand embarrass- 
ments, perplexities, and troubles to which I must again be 
exposed in the evening of a life already nearly consumed in 
public cares. Among all these anxieties, I will not conceal 
from you, I anticipated none greater than those that were 
likely to be produced by applications for appointments to 
the different offices, which would be created under the new 
Government. Nor will I conceal, that my apprehensions 
have already been but too well justified. Scarcely a day 
passes in which applications of one kind or another do not 
arrive ; insomuch that, had I not early adopted some general 
principles, I should before this time have been wholly occu- 
pied in this business. As it is, I have found the number of 
answers, which I have been necessitated to give in my own 
hand, an almost insupportable burden to me." 

" The points in which all these answers have agreed in 
substance are, that, should it be my lot to go again into 
public office, I would go without being under any public 
engagement of any nature whatsoever ; that so far as I know 
my own heart, I would not be in the remotest degree influ- 
enced, in making nominations, by motives arising from the 
ties of family or blood ; and that, on the other hand, three 
things, in my opinion, ought principally to be regarded, 
namely, the fitness of characters to fill offices, the com- 
parative claims from the former merits and sufferings in 
service of the different candidates, and the distribution of 
appointments in as equal a proportion as might be to 
persons belonging to the different States in the Union. 
Without precautions of this kind, I clearly foresaw the 
endless jealousies, and possibly the fatal consequences, to 



;i3 



HIS REGARD OF NATIONAL INTERESTS. 



which a Government, depending altogether on the good will 
of the people for its establishment, would certainly be 
exposed in its early stages. Besides, I thought, what- 
ever the effect might be in pleasing or displeasing any 
individuals at the present moment, a due concern for my 
own reputation, not less decisively than a sacred regard to 
the interests of the community, required that I should hold 
myself absolutely at liberty to act, while in office, with a sole 
reference to justice and the public good." 

In practice he verified these declarations, acting in every 
case with perfect independence, looking first to the national 
interests, and next to the best means of promoting them, 
and admitting no other ground of preference between can- 
didates, whose pretensions were in other respects equal, 
than that of former efforts and sacrifices in serving their 
country. 




Washington's seals, watch, and mortar. 



THE CASE OF MAJOR ANDRE CONSIDERED. 319 



The writer feels it a duty to refer to Washington's action 
in the case of Andre, it having been dealt with most 
unfairly, and in the teeth of unquestionable evidence, by 
more than one writer, American as well as English. His 
hope and desire is to set the painful matter at rest for ever, 
so that no man desiring that truth shall prevail may ever 
question the great Patriot's humanity. 

More than a century of years has rolled by since Major 
Andre expatiated his crime ; one of the clearest, as it is 
one of the most indefensible, cases of human treachery 
afforded by any history annals, and which, had it been 
successful in accomplishment, could not have failed of the 
direst effect on the cause of the American Revolution. 
Justice to Washington in this case has hitherto been too 
generally withheld, and it is not uncommon to find, even 
in America, and at this distance of time, intelligent men 
endorsing the sentimental calumny of the day, questioning 
the humanity of the great patriot. English writers at the 
time could hardly be expected to deal other than ex parte 
with the case, and it must be remembered there existed, 
from the hour of the Revolution outbreak to its successful 
accomplishment, a numerous community in the country 
itself, openly as well as covertly, opposed to the revolt 
against the mother country. There was no stronger trait 
in the character of Washington than humanity; the mis- 
fortunes and sufferings of others touched him keenly, and 
on all hands it is admitted that his feelings were deeply 
moved at the part he was compelled to act in consenting- 
to the death of Andre ; yet justice to the office he held, and 
to the cause for which his countrymen were shedding their 
blood, left him no alternative. Lord Mahon, like many 
other writers, has most unjustly stigmatized Washington's 
character and action in the Andre case. At this distance 
of time, and with the evidence before him, Lord Mahon 



3 2o ERASTUS BROOKS COLLATION OF EVIDENCE. 

should have known better. It is a fashion thus to deal 
with the sad event ; the habit arose in past days from 
utter ignorance of the real facts and circumstances of the 
case. Washington was utterly incapable of acting in a 
manner implied by the stigma. At the time of this unfair 
and unworthy conclusion, charging Washington with worse 
than indifference to Andre's fate, England was naturally 
excited and stirred by the event, not unreasonably so, 
looking at the admitted bravery, character, and antecedents 
of the youthful sufferer. The case was at the time put 
before the world in a semi-romantic light, and without any 
regard to the truth and actual facts. The Honourable 
Erastus Brooks has well gathered up and sifted in masterly 
manner the evidence in the painful case. 

Andre was unquestionably a spy — he was fairly tried as 
one — he was justly condemned as one, and met the fate 
accorded to such by every nation under heaven. There 
was no haste manifested in the formation or action of the 
tribunal. He was taken red-handed. A board of officers 
was summoned to inquire into the case, report the facts, 
and give opinion, both in regard to the nature of his offence 
and to the punishment that ought to be awarded. All 
available papers were laid before the board, and Andre 
himself was questioned, and desired to make such state- 
ments and explanations as he chose. After the fullest 
possible investigation, the board reported, that the prisoner 
came on shore in the night, to hold a private and secret 
interview with Arnold ; that he changed his dress within the 
American lines, and passed the guards in a disguised habit, 
having in his possession several papers, which contained 
intelligence for the enemy ; and that he ought to be con- 
sidered as a spy, and according to the law and usage of 
nations, to suffer death. General Washington, as became 
his solemn duty, approved this decision, and Major Andre 



BANCROFT ON THE ANDRE CASE. 321 



was executed at Tappan, on the 2nd of October, 1780. 
While Andre's case was pending Sir Henry Clinton used 
every effort in his power to rescue him from his fate. He 
wrote to Washington, and endeavoured to show that he 
should not be regarded as a spy, inasmuch as he came on 
shore at the request of an American general, and afterwards 
acted by his direction ; but connected with all the circum- 
stances, this argument could not, in reason or common- 
sense, be allowed to have any weight. That he was drawn 
into a snare by a traitor did not make him the less a spy. 
Bancroft, in his grand, exhaustive, and impartial history, 
says: — "At the request of Clinton, who promised to pre- 
sent ' a true state of facts,' the execution was delayed till 
the 2nd day of October, and General Robertson, attended 
by two civilians, came up the river for a conference. The 
civilians were not allowed to land, but Greene was deputed to 
meet the officer. Instead of presenting facts, Robertson, 
after compliments to the character of Greene, announced 
that he had come to treat with him. Greene answered, ' The 
case of an acknowledged spy admits of no official dis- 
cussion.' Robertson then proposed to free Andre by an 
exchange. Greene answered, ' If Andre is set free, 
Arnold must be given up,' for the liberation of Andre could 
not be asked for except in exchange for one who was 
equally implicated in the complot. Robertson then so far 
forgot himself as to deliver an open letter from Arnold to 
Washington, in which, in the event Andre should suffer the 
penalty of death, he used these threats, ' I shall think 
myself bound by every tie of duty and honour to retaliate 
on such unhappy persons of your army as may fall within 
my power. Forty of the principal inhabitants of South 
Carolina have justly forfeited their lives ; Sir Henry 
Clinton cannot in justice extend his mercy to them any 
longer if Major Andre suffers.' 

T t 



3 22 ANDRES ENTREATY TO BE SPARED THE GALLOWS. 



" Meantime, Andre entreated with touching earnestness 
that he might not die ' on the gibbet.' Washington and 
every other officer in the American army were moved to the 
deepest compassion ; and Hamilton, who has left his 
opinion that no one ever suffered death with more justice, 
and that there was in truth no way of saving him, wished 
that in the mode of his death his feelings as an officer and a 
man might be respected. But the English themselves had 
established the exclusive usage of the gallows. At the 
beginning of the war their officers in America threatened 
the highest American officers and statesmen with the cord. 
It was the only mode of execution authorized by them. 
Under the orders of Clinton, Lord Cornwallis in South 
Carolina had set up the gallows for those whom he styled 
deserters, without regard to rank. Neither the sentence of 
the court nor the order of Washington names death on the 
gallows ; the execution took place in the manner that was 
alone in use on both sides." 

Bancroft, with the eloquent power and strict impartiality 
and justice characterizing his noble monumental history, 
closes this sad chapter on human treachery in these truthful 
words, to which no honourably-minded Englishman can 
take exception : — " Tried by the laws of morals, it is one of 
the worst forms of dissimulation to achieve by corruption 
and treachery what cannot be gained by honourable arms. 
If we confine our judgment within the limits of the laws of 
war, it is a blemish on the character of Andre that he was 
willing to prostitute a flag, to pledge his word, even under 
the orders of his chief, for the innocence and private nature 
of his design, and to have wished to make the lives of 
faultless prisoners hostages for his own. About these 
things a man of honour and humanity ought to have had a 
scruple ; but the temptation was great, let his misfortunes 
cast a veil over his errors. The last words of Andre 



NARRATIVES OF ANDRE'S CASE. 323 

committed to the Americans the care of his reputation ; 
and they faithfully fulfilled his request. His king did right 
in granting pensions to his mother and sisters, but not in 
raising a memorial to his name in Westminster Abbey. 
Such honour belongs to other enterprises and deeds. The 
tablet has no fit place in a sanctuary dear from its 
monuments to every friend to genius and mankind." 

Mild as is the rebuke of America's gifted historian, 
Bancroft, it is as just as it is deserving. No true lover of 
his country would desire to see deeds such as that of 
Andre held up for approval and fitting as hero-worship. 
The writer of these memorials of Sharpies Washington 
does not hesitate to confess that he has never known a 
British officer who questioned the justice of Andre's sentence 
or Washington's action and entire humanity evidenced in 
the whole case. He has had it from the lips of more than 
one distinguished heroic son of Britain, whose honoured 
remains now repose in the sacred fane of Westminster, 
that the " storied urn " to Andre never should have been 
set up in the venerable pile. 

Inasmuch as these memorials of Washington refer mainly 
to a limited period of his life, it is just to the Great Apostle 
of Liberty, whose heart was incapable of the least act of 
inhumanity, to narrate somewhat fully the circumstances of 
Andre's treachery. The three peasant-militiamen, Paulding, 
Williams, and Van Wart, who captured Andre, and whose 
work in the most trying period of the Revolution is so 
wrought into the history of the nation that it has become 
one of its chief transactions. It is enough to say that the 
three men proved to be above temptation, if the best 
evidences of the time are credible. We must, however, 
regret that men like Andre, and his friend Major Tallmadge, 
ever doubted the integrity of the captors ; and regret also 
that the record was published more than once that " they 

T t 2 



324 MAJOR TALLMADGES CHARGES IN THE CASE. 

were self-appointed to the office of stopping well-dressed 
travellers, and men who perhaps would have rifled a 
traveller." It is a duty to say that Paulding had been 
twice captured by the British army, that Williams was but 
twenty-two years old, and the eldest of his three companions. 
Though young in years and poor in purse, they were rich in 
mature judgment, and in their work performed a service of 
immense value. 

The charges of Major Tallmadge on the floor of Congress 
in 1817, grew out of the application of Paulding for an 
increased pension. The request gave rise to the debate 
which started the accusation that the captors were un- 
deserving men, who for money would have released Andre. 
As it was they took his watch, which was afterwards 
redeemed by Colonel Smith for thirty guineas, his horse, 
saddle, and bridle, and for their service to the country they 
were rewarded by the State and by Congress. It is due to 
Major Tallmadge to say that his opinion of the bad character 
of Andre's captors grew in part out of the statement of 
Andre himself, that he would have been released at the 
time of his arrest if he had had money with him sufficient to 
meet the demands of his captors. There is no evidence of 
the truth of this statement. Looking at the good work 
done, and the temptations offered, it is a pleasure to accord 
the most honourable intentions as well as the grandest 
possible results to the timely and needed arrest of one in 
whose hands for a time were the destinies of the nation. 

A scene of dramatic interest attaches to the time and 
place of Andre's arrest. The spy came upon his captors, 
galloping upon a large brown horse, upon one of whose 
shoulders was branded the initial letters, "U. S. A." He 
found them engaged in a game of cards. Before dis- 
mounting he was taken to a whitewood or tulip-tree — long 
known as Andre's tree — its girth of twenty-six feet and its 



V1LLANY AND ESCAPE OF ARNOLD. 325 

gnarled limbs reaching almost to the earth, making it an 
object of intense interest, at times almost of reverence, and 
especially so after the tree was struck with lightning. 
Here Andre, as in the very shadow of death, stood with a 
marked countenance, a man about five feet seven inches in 
height. Here he was again questioned, and protested that 
he had no letters — perhaps, under the circumstances, and 
as wilful deceivers value the truth when in danger, a pardon- 
able lie. Piece by piece he threw off his clothing. His 
long boots, the first object of attraction on the highway — 
for boots were rare and valuable at that time — proved that 
Andre was no common man. If, as was alleged thirty- 
seven years later, the captors were looking for money, they 
found in the stockings in Andre's boots treasure far more 
valuable than all the gold and silver in the colonies. The 
cry came at once and with an oath, which might also be 
pardoned in the Heavens: "Here it is/" "He IS A 
SPY ! " And the prisoner was borne twelve miles off to 
Lieutenant-Colonel Jamieson, in command of the nearest 
quarters of the American army. With no suspicion of 
treason the first order of Jamieson was to send Andre to 
Arnold ; but a good providence changed the intent as to 
the prisoner, but not as to information sent, to Arnold of 
the capture of a spy. The escape of Arnold was a cruelty 
to the cause he had both served and betrayed : to the 
country at large, and in its example to mankind. He told 
the story of his villainy in a few hurried words to his devoted 
and agonized wife, who, with her infant child in her arms, 
fell fainting to the floor, as it were, dead ; but now, alas ! 
the life-long companion of the basest of ingrates and 
traitors, and far worse than dead. She was, be it said to 
her honour, and in sympathy with her great misfortune, 
innocent of all knowledge of her husband's infamy, and of 
all offence against her country ; and Washington, at the 



326 WASHINGTON'S DISTRESS. 

request of Arnold, sent her in safety to her parental home 
in Philadelphia. 

General Greene, on the 26th of September, 1780, stated 
that " this was the first instance of treason of the kind 
where many were from the nature of the dispute to be 
expected." But this one example was upon the mind of 
Washington most distressing. "Whom," he was tempted 
to exclaim even to his friend Lafayette, in view of the 
confidence reposed in Arnold, and who, after earnest 
importunities growing out of his wounds and alleged weak- 
ness, he had placed in supreme command at West Point, 
"WHOM CAN WE TRUST NOW?" 

The prisoner was at this time under the care of Major 
Tallmadge, when the latter, in answer to a question as to 
the possible fate of Andre, reminded him of the fate of his 
own classmate and friend, Nathan Hale, near the com- 
mencement of the war. " Yes," said Tallmadge, he was 
hanged as a spy ! " " Surely," quoth Andre, in reply, " you 
do not consider his case and mine alike?" "They are 
precisely similar, and similar will be your punishment," was 
the prompt answer of his keeper, and of a man in deep 
sympathy with his fate. It was the result of this free 
intercourse no doubt which prompted Tallmadge to declare 
in Congress that the captors of Arnold were " cowboys, or 
persons who traded with both camps and drove cattle for 
profit between the two armies." Major Biddle treated this 
statement, as did many in Congress when it was made, as 
ungenerous and unjust. 

It should be borne in mind, in reference to this case of 
Andre's execution, so unjustly adduced as reflecting on 
Washington's character and humanity, that one Nathan Hale, 
a classmate and friend of Andre, was publicly hanged for 
treason in 1 776, on the morning of the Revolution. After but 
one night's imprisonment he was executed, without trial, 



NATHAN HALE'S EXECUTION. 327 

without mercy, and as a dying man was even denied the use 
of a Bible. Like Andre he was a spy. His letters to his mother 
and the lady he loved were torn to pieces before his eyes. 
Even his last recorded words of love and final remembrance 
failed to move the stony heart of the miscalled man 
and officer before him. Young Hale entered the enemy's 
lines at the request of Washington, who needed light as to 
the number of the enemy on Long Island. With the 
purest motives and for the most patriotic services he met 
the wishes of his Commander-in-Chief. He was detected 
as he was leaving the enemy's camp, and was betrayed by 
his own kinsman. The time of his execution was at break 
of day, while the great fires of September 21st, 1776, were 
smouldering in the distance, and where the conflagration 
heightened the anger of the British occupants of American 
territory. His execution was upon the order of Sir William 
Howe, and the manner of it was the most brutal official act 
of the seven years' war. The treatment and trial of Andre, 
in contrast, not only won the sympathy and approval of 
Andre himself, but the respectful recognitions of the entire 
country. Whatever the differences of opinion as to the 
act of execution upon the gibbet, there were none as to the 
fairness of the trial. Nor was there any division of senti- 
ment as to the gentlemanly and courageous bearing of the 
prisoner. Andre was but twenty-nine at the time of his 
execution, and Hale but twenty-one. While Andre in his 
death was calm, silent, and self-possessed, almost beyond 
precedent, the last and glowing words of Hale were his 
regrets that " he had but one life to give for his country." 
In contrast to Hale's manner of death, Andre wrote to Sir 
Henry Clinton, September 29th, less than three days before 
his execution, as follows : " I receive the greatest attention 
from his Excellency General Washington, and from every 
person under whose charge I happen to be placed." The 



328 ANDRE'S DISGUISE EVIDENCE OF GUILT. 

spot where Hale was buried no one knows, while Andre 
received the respect of his enemies, the honours of his 
country, and to remove the taint of hanging, the King of 
England knighted one of Andre's brothers. 

Washington burst into tears when he heard of the treason 
of Arnold, and said, " I had no more suspicion of Arnold 
than I had of myself." Andre also once burst into 
tears when he counted the cost of a sacrifice which, 
beginning in Arnold's foul treason, ended in his own death 
upon the gibbet. Andre's tears, it is proper to say, grew 
out of his great distress for the feelings of Clinton, whose 
orders he had exceeded, whom he sincerely loved, and in 
whom Clinton seemed to repose more confidence, and to 
give more power, than to any other officer on his staff or 
under his command. 

One other scene recorded in the drama of Andre's 
seizure should not be forgotten in judging the case. Hitherto 
all had been well with him, especially his many miles of 
midnight travel with muffled oars from King's Ferry to 
Teller's Point and back from the Vulture to Long Cove. 
He had left behind him all the guards, sentries, and patrols 
of his enemies, and was looking forward to the meeting of 
friends in a place of safety, when he was confronted by his 
three captors with three cocked muskets aimed at his person. 
As a means of safety he was clothed in part in the dress of 
Arnold's confidential, if not traitorous, companion, Smith. 
The dress worn by him was a tall beaver hat, crimson coat, 
and pantaloons and waistcoat of nankeen. He also bore 
upon his person the order of Arnold " to pass Andre where 
he would within the American lines." Edmund Burke's 
Register has said of the offender, that " his open bravery, 
high ideas of candour, and disdain of duplicity, unfitted 
him for the mechanical boldness, dissimulation, and circum- 
spection of a spy." When discovered he thought the three 



ARNOLD AND GENERAL MONK COMPARED. 329 



men he encountered on the highway belonged either to his 
own country, or if not that they were friendly to it. Pauldino- 
had been only four days out of a British prison, and one of 
his keepers had compelled him to change his own better 
dress for that of a Briton or Hessian. In this recognized 
dress Andre's eyes fell first upon Paulding and then upon 
his companions. Some ambiguous word of one of the 
captors brought out the response which betrayed the spy : 
" You are from below. I, too, am from below. I am a 
British officer, on urgent business ; do not detain me a 
minute." Then came the presentation of Arnold's pass, 
and the vain threat of Arnold's name and vengeance if it 
was not respected. The boots, the boast, the urgency of 
manner, and the promise of money, made duty plain, and 
brought out the reply of Paulding, which, like Nathan Hale's 
last words, will live for ever: " If you gave us ten thousand 
guineas, you should not stir a step." 

General Arnold has been compared to General Monk, 
whose bad example the American traitor copied, but with 
none of Monk's success. George III. was Arnold's friend ; 
while reason was enthroned in the brain of the king he was 
in high favour with his Majesty, but when the mind of the 
king was lost by a fatal insanity, the Government re-called 
the man who had brought neither honour to himself nor 
profit to their country ; and they also remembered him as 
one whose crimes to his own country, as well as to the 
British colonies in America, had caused the death of one 
now esteemed and honoured through all the realm. Lord 
Surrey said in Parliament, " I will not speak while that man 
is in the House." Lord Lauderdale was equally offended 
when he saw Arnold familiar with the king. Then came 
the plague-spot in Arnold's life. Despised in England, 
detested in America, and wretched in his own existence, we 
are told in a family tradition, possibly true, that his last 

U u 



33o THREATS OF ARNOLD ON ANDRE'S BEHALF. 

words were, " Bring me, I beg you, the epaulettes and 
sword-knots which Washington gave me ; let me die in my 
old American uniform, the uniform in which I fought my 
battles, and God forgive me," he added, " for ever putting 
on any other." The death of this man took place in 1801, 
but where buried in the wilderness of London no man 
knows. When Arnold and his wife looked upon the remains 
of Andre in Westminster Abbey, then, indeed, he might 
have felt and said all this, and more than this, especially 
when he remembered that his, in high places, if not in the 
lowest estate, was the solitary treason of his country, — 

"One grateful truth he left to glad mankind, 
That in a war so long, his crime alone 
Should stain the annals of recording time." 

We recall also as a part of the events of the time in hand, 
the impudent threats of Arnold in his letters to Washington 
in behalf of Andre, and the persistent but more honourable 
demands of Clinton and his friend Robinson for his release, 
because Andre, as alleged, but without truth — Andre him- 
self writing to the contrary — was under " a flag of truce " 
when he left the Vulture, and rightly named the Vulture 
for the mischief done both to Andre and Arnold. The 
court which tried the offender, the chief of the army, who 
felt deep pity for Andre's youth, and respect for his manly 
bearing — and it was in every way deserving of respect and 
sympathy — and the general feeling of the country was that 
there could be no pardon for such an offence. It was said 
at the time that " men are not to be reckoned as we reckon 
animals, and that one camel is worth no more than another, 
but the man who is before us is worth an army." 

Nor was the sentence and execution one of retaliation as 
has been more than once stated, for since the hanging of 
Nathan Hale in 1776, at least eight British spies had been 



DISLOYALTY MADE THE EXAMPLE NECESSAR Y. 331 



hung. The reply of Israel Putnam to General Tryon ex- 
pressed the spirit of the times and the duties of the occa- 
sion. He wrote as follows : — 

" Sir, — Nathan Palmer, a lieutenant in your king's 
service, was taken in my army as a spy, he was tried as a 
spy, he was condemned as a spy, and you may rest assured, 
sir, that he shall be hanged as a spy. 

" I have the honour to be, &c, 

" Israel Putnam. 
" P.S.— Afternoon. He is hanged." 

The disloyalty of the period, and the great number of 
loyalists even in that part of the country, made some 
terrible example a necessity. Andre was not only a spy in 
1 780, but it is stated, and is believed, that he was a success- 
ful spy, in the disguise of a cattle-driver, in the fall of 
Charlestown, one of the greatest disasters of the war, com- 
pelling as it did the surrender of General Lincoln with his 
army of nearly 7000 troops. The fact of Andre's presence 
disguised as a spy in the South, as well as at the North, is 
upon the evidence of one of Clinton's own officers who so 
stated in 1822, and of one of Andre's intimate friends. He 
was fond of adventure, and by talent and study, by art and 
address, was fitted for the work before him. He found 
pleasure in danger. Like Arnold he could run with the 
hare or hunt with the hounds. He was in the upper story 
of Smith's house in the grey of the morning and through 
the night. He left Arnold, we are told, who detained him 
through the night, depressed in spirit and sad in counte- 
nance, but recovered rapidly as he passed beyond what he 
regarded as points of danger. All commend his self-posses- 
sion from the hour of his arrest to the moment of his 
execution. He shuddered, but only for a second of time, 

U u 2 



332 ANDRE'S BRAVERY AND HUMANE NATURE. 

as he glanced at the gibbet which in a moment was to 
launch him into the presence of the Almighty ; but with 
recovered composure he calmly said, " It will soon be 
over." It may be said of him without exaggeration and 
hardly in the figure of speech, that " he smiled at the 
drawn dagger and defied its point." 

It is due to his gentle nature also to say that in the 
presence of women and children he was every inch a manly 
man. When practically second in command in New York 
he came to the rescue of a lad fifteen years of age, a boy 
of true Yankee grit in the fight, but not so plucky in 
defeat. The boy had been caught while fighting, with 
children of a larger growth, a body of men on the British 
side engaged in a foraging party. The party were taken 
to the city jail, where Andre, richly dressed in his uniform, 
approached the lad, and said to him, " My dear boy, what 
makes you cry ? " The natural and childish answer, in 
sight of the prison, was, " My mother and my sister at 
home!" And Andre then said, "Well, my dear child, 
don't cry any more ;" and after seeing Clinton he came 
again to the scared and weeping youth, and said, " My 
boy, I've good news for you ! The General has given you 
to me to dispose of as I choose, and now you are at liberty. 
So run home to your parents, and be a good boy. Mind 
what they tell you. Say your prayers, love one another, 
and God Almighty will bless you." 

Inside or outside of the gospel of peace for men, women, 
or children, State or country, no better sermon nor nobler 
example than this was ever heard. 

There is abundant evidence of Andre's kindness to 
American prisoners of war when under his care. All who 
were near him were kindly treated. Washington the Chief, 
his aide-de-camp, Hamilton, then at about the age of 
twenty-three, who was much with him, Major Jackson, who 



HAMILTON'S COURSE IN THE CASE. 333 

had received Andre's kindness in prison, one and all indeed 
were deeply touched with the genuine manliness of the 
prisoner. Hamilton could not refrain from saying, while 
justifying the execution, in a long and memorable letter to 
his betrothed, " I confess to you I had the weakness to 
value the esteem of a dying man because I reverenced his 
merit ;" and Hamilton would if he could have saved his 
life by receiving, life for life, Arnold in exchange. It is in 
evidence that Washington proposed this in a letter to 
Clinton under a flag of truce; but, as was natural, and in 
war and precedent proper, the offer was declined. No 
wonder that Lafayette, as one of the court who sentenced 
him to death, said, " All the court were filled with expres- 
sions of admiration for him. It is impossible to express 
too much respect or too deep regret for Major Andre." 
Tallmadge wrote, " I became so deeply attached to Major 
Andre that I could remember no instance where my affec- 
tion was so fully absorbed by any man." No marvel then 
that tears fell from many eyes when Andre died upon the 
gibbet, with the courage of a hero and the philosophy of a 
sage. 

The closing scene of all in Andre's life is one of the 
saddest recorded in history. He appealed to Washington 
to soften his last moments by allowing him to be shot 
instead of dying upon the gibbet. His brief words were, 
for I am limited by rapidly passing time to a paragraph : — 

" Tappan, October, 1780. 
" Sympathy towards a soldier will surely induce your 
Excellency and a military tribunal to adapt the mode of 
my death to the feelings of a man of honour. Let me 
hope, sir, if aught in my character impresses you with 
esteem towards me, if aught in my misfortunes makes me 
the victim of policy and not of resentment, I shall expe- 



334 ARNOLD THE CAUSE OF ANDRES CRIME. 

rience the operations of those feelings in your heart by 
being informed that I am not to die on a gibbet. 

" John AndrS, 
" Adjutant-General to the British Army." 

Washington's counsellors declared the request inadmis- 
sible, and Washington himself chose not to add a fresh 
pang to Andre's heart by any written denial to his earnest 
request. And hence the misconstrued studied silence 
where words would only have added more pain to the 
deepest sorrow. The heart of the great Patriot was 
tender as that of any woman, but it was just. 

It was the mode of Andre's death which caused criti- 
cism in England, as it caused profound pity, and criticism 
in the United States. Andre was young in years and 
eleven years the junior of Arnold. He was born of Swiss 
parents in 1 75 1 , and educated in Europe. Arnold, the 
source and cause of all his public woes, an American 
by birth and education, had engaged a man of great 
address and of deliberate purpose to ruin the land 
against which he was in arms, and not now in the open 
field of war as at St. John's, near Lake Champlain, and 
elsewhere. The deed was done in the by-paths and con- 
cealments of a country road, at night time in part, and 
under a false flag of truce. But if Arnold could have been 
exchanged for Andre, the country and the world would have 
rejoiced, and Andre's life been saved. Delicate and refined 
in features, educated in books and arts, cultivated in man- 
ners, brave as a soldier, fond of painting, drawing, and 
music, which not alone in poetry to his loved one, but in 
rhyme and song and music to his enemies, he used all his 
arms and arts with skill and satire at the expense of 
America, and especially against General Wayne. 

He was in love, too, and, saddest of all to a sensitive 



BETTER ANDRE ON THE GIBBET THAN ARNOLD. 335 

mind and heart, he was a rejected lover, and this, as rarely 
happens, without love lost upon his own side. The woman 
he loved, Honora Sneyd by name, is presented to us at the 
time as graceful in person, beautiful in features, and as one 
whose expression heightened the eloquence of everything 
she said. Another memory or painting of her is that she 
was surrounded by virgin glories, beauty and grace, sensi- 
bility and goodness, superior intelligence and unswerving 
truth. It was said of Andre at home, and as a man worthy 
of this affection, that the better he was known the more he 
was loved, and certain it is that in many ways his was a 
gentle spirit. He failed in love, and he failed in war. At 
St. John's in November, 1775, he was captured, with six 
hundred troops, and for a time was quartered in Phila- 
delphia, later at Lancaster and Carlisle, and was released 
by exchange near the close of 1776. Soon he was advanced 
in the British army, and so passed on honoured and re- 
spected, until the fatal months, eighteen of them in all, as I 
read, when he became, if not the companion, the counsellor 
and correspondent of a traitor. And so, as the good book 
tells us, it is always true that evil communications corrupt 
good manners. 

Better a hundred times over Andre than Arnold. Better 
Andre upon the gibbet, than Arnold the American traitor 
Major-General, or the Major-General of the British army. 
Arnold, intellectually and physically, was brave, brilliant, 
capable of immense will power, and of great nervous 
activity. He knew as a soldier, as some men have known 
in political service, how to be the greatest, wisest, and 
meanest of mankind. He sold his honour and his patriotism 
to a bad ambition, a mean jealousy, and a spirit of revenge. 
In the history of mankind it would be hard to find a sadder 
example of the consequences of misguided thought and 
conduct than in the life of Benedict Arnold. Some of his 



336 ARNOLD'S GREATEST CRIME WAS TO WASHINGTON. 

name, related to him by blood, honourable as citizens, have 
felt the sting of his crime, and have tried at times to find 
some excuse for it in the seeming neglect of recognition for 
work performed by him when a successful soldier in the war 
of the Revolution, and especially for his valour at Saratoga 
and Quebec. We cheerfully admit his courage in battle, 
and in all that once belonged to the glories of the field his 
claim to higher military promotion, before he fell to the lowest 
depths of personal degradation. Whatever his wrongs, 
Washington nor his country were the wrong-doers; and 
if they had been, the man should have risen above revenge 
and treason, and proved to the country and to mankind 
that patience, forbearance, and endurance are the first duties 
of the patriot and the soldier. Arnold so felt in the end, 
and but for the sin by which the angels fell, a better fate 
might have saved his name and fame. 

Arnold's greatest personal crime was to Washington 
himself. To him he was guilty of ingratitude, injustice, in- 
sincerity, and baseness in all their forms. Though Wash- 
ington had placed him in the triple post of confidence, 
honour, and safety at West Point, to keep Clinton from the 
North and Burgoyne from the South, he sought from June 
to near the close of September, if not long before, to break 
this barrier of separation, and to place Washington, the 
army, and the country in possession of the enemy, — and all 
for a sum of money, and a place in power. 

Andre was dealing with a man guilty of the double crime 
of treason to his country and treason to his commander in 
arms. To this end he sought and obtained command of the 
fortress which separated the two great forces of the enemy. 
He had given orders to his subordinate, Colonel Sheldon, to 
pass Andre through the American lines. He had carried on 
a secret and villainous correspondence with Andre, as one 
John Anderson, about " good speculations," " the price 



ARNOLD'S PLANS FOR SURRENDERING GARRISON. 337 



of tobacco," and " ready money." He had again and 
again violated the flag of truce. On the night of Sep- 
tember 2 1 st he dispatched Joshua H. Smith, if not 
an open criminal, an accomplice, to visit the British 
sloop-of-war Vulture at Teller's Point, twelve or fifteen 
miles below West Point, and to this vessel he was rowed 
by two labourers. He was in conference with Andre 
at Smith's house, the one an open foe to liberty and union, 
people, and country, and the other making terms with this 
foe as to the price to be paid for the betrayal of his country. 
He had completed a bargain, under six distinct heads, 
showing, one by one, the place and force of each corps at 
West Point, of each redoubt and battery, with a complete 
description of the place, of the condition and strength of 
all points of defence, and the confidential communication 
of Washington to Arnold. Two of these papers gave, in 
Arnold's handwriting, the strength of the garrison and the 
force necessary to man the works. Andre accepted all 
this information from Arnold secretly, willingly, on 
American soil, and for the direct purpose of destroying 
the country. It is also important to remember that 
Clinton would consent to nothing short of a knowledge of 
Arnold's purpose to tell all he knew of the forces at West 
Point and with the intent of their surrender. Well did 
King George III. say "the public never can be com- 
pensated for the vast advantages which must have followed 
from the success of his plan." 

Andre also came from the Vulture to the shores of the 
Hudson in his own British uniform, covered only by an 
ordinary cloak, and he returned in clothes borrowed from 
Smith and with a pass from Arnold. Smith, his companion, 
parted with him on the left bank of the river to report to 
Arnold at West Point that "all was going well." Arnold 
also was to receive for his treason, if successful, " 30,000/. 

X x 



338 ARNOLD AND ANDRE BARGAINING TOGETHER. 

in money, and no loss of rank or pay. Clinton, for value 
received, was as willing to buy as Arnold was to sell ; ready, 
indeed, to quote his own words, to close the bargain, "at 
every risk and at any cost." In the upper story of Smith's 
house, already mentioned, Arnold was paying, by betrayal 
of his country, the price agreed upon, and for several hours 
the spy and traitor, face to face, were engaged in these 
treacherous bargains. Arnold here laid before Andre, in 
Smith's upper chamber, the official plans of all the works 
at West Point, and the very plans prepared for Washington 
by the French engineer Duportail. These were the papers 
seized, and it was for this seizure that the three captors 
received their lands, medals, and pensions from the United 
States Government, from the State Government, the thanks 
of Congress, of the Legislature of New York, and of the 
City of New York, in a monument for Paulding, besides 
the thanks of Washington himself. The people at the time, 
and for two generations since, have recognized their 
patriotism and the great value of their services. 

Of Arnold's thirty thousand pounds of blood-money, 
with pay and rank, which Clinton had promised him, it 
may be said with Vattel, the great expositor on the laws 
of war, that such bribes for seduction are not in accord 
with the laws of a moral conscience. The best law says 
that in " seducing a subject to betray his country, and 
practising on the fidelity of a governor, enticing him, 
persuading him to deliver up a place, is prompting such 
persons to commit detestable crimes ;" and Vattel further 
asks, "Is it honest to incite our most inveterate enemy to 
be guilty of a crime ?" He also says of spies, that " they 
are those who introduce themselves among the enemy to 
discover the condition of his affairs, penetrate his designs, 
and communicate them to him who employs them." The 
entire law of nations is in accord with this opinion, and 



REMOVAL OF ANDREWS BODY TO ENGLAND. 339 

hence when the conspirators of Clinton were engaged in 
the foul work of fomenting mutiny and treason among 
American troops at Princeton, they were seized and 
hung on the authority of the laws of war, or the law of 
nations. 

General Washington, in his letter to Congress bearing 
date at Robinson's house in the Highlands, September 
26th, 1780, declared, upon the instant of his knowledge of 
what these men had done, that " their acts do them the 
highest honour and prove them to be men of virtue," and, 
he added, in a letter to his court of six major-generals and 
eight brigadier-generals, that the men who tried him had 
performed their duty. 

In the height of the war Arnold became weary of 
the war, and was eager for peace. His mind, like his 
body, was ill at ease. He complained of a ruined con- 
stitution and of a limb rendered useless in the war. In his 
letter to Joshua H. Smith, he says, " At the close of the 
war I look for compensation for such damages as I have 
sustained," and the same man wrote these foul words from 
the Vulture to Washington at West Point, October 1st, 
1780, " I call heaven and earth to witness that your Excel- 
lency will be justly answerable for the torrent of blood that 
may be shed " if Andre is executed. 

Andre's remains were removed, with all the honours of 
war, from the place of his execution, and buried in his own 
country in 1821, under an order of George III. Theywere 
borne to the shores of his fatherland, and with renewed 
honours placed in Westminster Abbey, where upon his 
monument we read, " he fell a sacrifice to his zeal for his 
king and country." Andre for sixty years has had his chief 
monument in the great mausoleum of the Old World ; and 
a monument to his memory, recording his execution as a 
spy, has been erected to him in America, the inscription on 

X x 2 



340 THE BOARD'S RECORD OF ITS DECISION. 

which does not in any way reflect upon the men who tried 
and convicted Andre, nor in any way upon the country 
whose very life he would have taken in its first struggle for 
independence, nor upon Washington himself who signed 
the sentence of death. 

In this connection, reference should be made to the form 
of Andre's trial. The record reads as follows : — 

" The Board having considered the letter from his Excel- 
lency, General Washington, respecting Major Andre, Adju- 
tant-General to the British Army, the confession of Major 
Andre, and the papers produced to them, report to his 
Excellency the Commander-in-Chief the following facts 
which appear to them in relation to Major Andre : — 

" Firstly, That he came on shore from the Vulture, sloop- 
of-war, on the night of the 21st September instant, on an 
interview with General Arnold in a private and secret 
manner. 

" Secondly, That he changed his dress within our lines, 
and, under a feigned name and in a disguised habit, passed 
our works at Stony and Verplank's Point, the evening of 
the 22nd September instant, and was taken the morning of 
the 23rd September instant at Tarrytown in a disguised 
habit, being then on his way to New York, and when taken 
he had in his possession several papers which contained 
intelligence for the enemy. 

" The Board having maturely considered these facts do 
also report to his Excellency General Washington that 
Major Andre, Adjutant-General to the British Army, ought 
to be considered as a spy from the enemy, and that, agree- 
able to the law and usage of nations, it is their opinion 
that he ought to suffer death." 

Signed by Nathaniel Greene, M.G., president, and thir- 
teen others, including Lafayette, Steuben, James Clinton, 
Knox, and Starke. 



WASHINGTON'S LETTER PRIOR TO THE TRIAL. 341 

The letter of Washington, which preceded this trial, reads 
as follows : — 

"Gentlemen, — Major Andre, Adjutant-General to the 
British Army, will be brought before you for your examina- 
tion. He came within our lines in the night on an interview 
with Major- General Arnold, and in an assumed character, 
and was taken within our lines in a disguised habit, with a 
pass under a feigned name, and with the enclosed papers 
concealed upon him. After a careful examination you will 
be pleased as speedily as possible to report a precise state 
of his case, together with your opinion of the light in which 
he ought to be considered and the punishment that ought 
to be inflicted." 

And when all was over, another letter read as follows : — 

" Paramus, October 7, 1780. 
"... This officer was executed in pursuance of the 
opinion of the Board on Monday, the second instant, at 
twelve o'clock, at our late camp at Tappan. . . ." 

Arnold, like Andre and his captors, also has his monu- 
ment, and Alexander Hamilton, as the aide-de-camp of 
Washington, inscribed upon it, in the form of the memories 
of the people, the undying record, that while " Arnold is 
handed down with execration to future times, posterity will 
repeat with reverence the names of Paulding, Williams, and 
Van Wart," and in the same paper he said of Andre, in 
connection with these men, " He tempted their integrity 
with the offer of his watch, his horse, and any sum of 
money they should name. They rejected his }ffer with 
indignation, and the gold that could seduce a man high in 
the esteem and confidence of his country had no charms 
for these simple peasants, leaning on their virtue and a 
sense of duty." 

It was Sterne who said that "of all the cant in this 



342 OFFICERS FORMING THE TRIBUNAL. 

canting world, though the cant of hypocrisy may be the 
worst, the cant of criticism is the most tormenting." 
The severest criticisms have followed the part taken by 
Washington in the trial and execution of Andre. Had the 
offenders been either of the Howes, in command of the 
British army and navy, or Clinton in command when Andre 
was arrested, tried, sentenced, and executed, no deeper 
feeling could have pervaded Great Britain or impressed the 
colonies. The sentence and its execution proved at least 
that America, sink or swim, live or die, was in dead earnest 
for independence. It was the detestable treason of Arnold 
also which was, in part, punished in the sentence of Andre. 
The latter was in close communication with a man whose 
later avowal was the confident expectation that, with the 
British in possession of West Point, America was subdued. 
At times that communication was open, and when necessary 
it was confidential and secret. The officers selected by 
Washington to hear and determine his case were men 
whose reputations will live as long as the country lives as 
among the wisest, truest, and most patriotic men of the 
Revolution. The report of these fourteen officers was 
unanimous, after the fairest trial, and by men who felt the 
deepest sympathy for the guilty officer detected in a work 
which contemplated literally the surrender of the strongest 
fortress in the land, and the worst possible consequences to 
liberty and independence. The verdict was that " he ought 
to be considered as a spy from the enemy;" and that " he 
ought to suffer death." The next day, September 30th, 
1 780, the sentence of death being known, Washington, now 
acting as a judge, obedient to law, as the chief of the army 
which Arnold would have betrayed into the hands of Andre, 
as a patriot whose mind was pure as the air of heaven, 
whose heart in every fibre of its being was devoted to the 
love of country, wrote these words : — 



ANDREWS EXECUTION ORDERED. 343 



" The Commander-in-Chief approves of the opinion of 
the Board of General Officers respecting Major Andre, and 
orders that the execution of Major Andre take place to- 
morrow at five o'clock p.m." 

The execution was postponed until the 2nd of October. 
September 30th, the sentence was laid before Congress, 
whose judgment Washington would gladly have received ; 
but, while there was intense feeling upon the subject of the 
trial and the sentence of death, there was no public debate 
nor any interference with the judgment of the court, nor 
any advice in regard to it. Washington is charged with 
" cold insensibility " for the mode of Andre's death. The 
answer is that the mode was a logical necessity for the 
crime committed, and even Walter Scott so held it before 
his countrymen. 

The appeals made to Washington for an exchange of 
prisoners by Clinton and his representatives, and for a 
change of the manner of death, were unheeded but not 
unheard by Washington. He did what the military court 
who tried Andre decided to be just. He did what he 
thought it was right to do, in view both of the crime com- 
mitted against the country and as a necessary example 
upon the people of the nation, many of whom were disloyal 
even in the midst of the country where the wrong was done. 
He followed the wisest military precedents all the world 
over. Napoleon, when on trial before the great triumvirate 
of British statesmen, Stockwell, Ellenborough, and Grant, 
thirty-four years after Andre was executed, was pronounced 
a pirate, a criminal, and a common enemy of mankind. 
There was a disposition even to hand him over as a traitor 
to Louis XVIII., and only a division of opinion — where 
there was none in the court that sentenced Andre — sub- 
stituted an exile worse than death for death itself. The 
fate of Andre, ignominious as it was, was in the end better 



344 HAMILTON'S SYMPATHIES FOR ANDRE. 

than that of many of his comrades, and hardly worse than 
that which befell his two American friends, Hamilton and 
Henry Lee — the one killed in a most shameful duel, and 
the other the inmate of a jail, the victim of a mob, the 
creature of malice and of the most terrible poverty. Chief 
Justice Marshall, pure and great among the wisest of the 
land, one of the most eminent jurists the country has ever 
produced, than whom a more humane man never lived, said 
that "Andre having been unquestionably a spy, his sentence 
consequently was just." 

Death early or late is the common lot of all mankind ; 
and it came to Andre a little beyond the morning of life, 
amidst the sincere regrets of his enemies and the esteem 
and lamentations of all whom he served on both sides of 
the ocean. " Unusually esteemed and unusually regretted," 
were the words of Alexander Hamilton in his record of the 
transaction, and this was the general feeling of all men. 
While Hamilton's sympathies for Andre were intense, they 
were every way manly. " Never, perhaps," he said, " did 
a man suffer with more justice, or deserve it less." He 
condemned Andre for what he had attempted against the 
country, and acquitted him because, as he said, " the autho- 
rized maxims and practices of war are the satire of human 
nature;" and because, as he also said, "these maxims 
permit the general that can make the worst traitors in the 
army of his adversary to be frequently most applauded." 
Like Washington, Hamilton felt, as upon reflection we all 
must feel, apart from our interest in talent, taste, and a 
generous nature, that it was " a blemish in Andre's fame 
that he once intended to prostitute a flag ; and about this 
a nice honour ought to have had a scruple." Major Tall- 
madge also wrote as Andre's sympathizing friend, " Though 
he dies lamented, he dies justly." While Andre gave his 
true name to Washington, it is but a just inference to say 



DEMAND FOR ANDRE'S RELEASE. 345 

that he did this partly in the interest of truth, but more in 
his own interest for his own fame. In the myth "John 
Anderson," there was nowhere any personal interest ; as 
John Andre, Adjutant-General of the British army, though 
the same man, he was altogether a different person. The 
only particle of selfishness in his conduct after his arrest 
was in his letter to Washington, wherein he intimated a 
threat that " some gentlemen at Charleston," quoting his 
own words, " were engaged in a conspiracy against us " 
..." objects who may be sent in exchange for me, or 
persons whom the treatment I receive might affect." It 
was on this hint that Arnold wrote his threat to Washington, 
and Clinton also claimed Andre's release. The demand 
suggested acts of retaliation which if put in practice no 
doubt Andre would have deplored. The suggestion was 
ungenerous and unjust, since these Charleston men, then 
in confinement at St. Augustine, had both invited and 
demanded investigation. 

The quaint old building known as Washington's Head- 
quarters at Tappan, although associated with one of the 
most important events of the Revolution — the trial and exe- 
cution of Major Andre — has little more than a local reputa- 
tation. And yet Americans will often scramble about all 
over the world in search of novelties possessing little or no 
real interest. It was erected in the year 1 700, as is attested 
by figures some four feet in height set in the front brick 
wall of the building, The property was purchased by 
Johannes De Wint, a wealthy planter from St. Thomas, 
West Indies, about 1756, and continued in his possession 
up to 1 790, the time of his death. 

On the 28th September, 1780, Washington and his staff, 
who had been on a visit to the French General Rochambeau 
at Hartford, arrived at Tappan, and took up his quarters at 
Mr. De Wint's mansion, which is still well preserved. 

Y y 



346 WASHINGTON AT TAPPAN 

With the exception of Major Blauvelt, the son-in-law of 
De Wint, all the family were loyalists ; but the daughter, 
with the natural spirit of a woman and of the times, was 
proud of the honour of entertaining the Commander-in-Chief 
of the American army. During the trial of Andre, Wash- 
ington followed strictly his habits of family worship in the 
parlour of the mansion. The orderly life of his early home 
was his practice then, and up to the last month of the last 
year of the last century, when he died. As an incident of 
the times it may be stated that a grandmother of Colonel 
Haring, of Rockland County, was in the habit of visiting 
the soldiers on errands of mercy while in the locality, and 
that in one of her visits she found a soldier under sentence 
of death for desertion. The poor fellow pleaded with her 
to intercede in his behalf. Calling at headquarters the 
following morning, she was informed by Major Blauvelt, the 
son-in-law of Mr. De Wint, that the General was conduct- 
ing family worship, and that immediately after the service 
he would open the front door and walk through the hall. 
Biding her time she saw the Commander-in-Chief and made 
known her errand. " I am afraid he is a bad man, but for 
your sake I will see what can be done," said the General. 
After investigating the case he pardoned the man. Three 
weeks after he deserted again, and was captured and shot. 
Washington's almost single failure in his judgment of men 
was in the character of Arnold. Arnold's early life had 
proved his courage in the field and his devotion to the 
country. 

Everything in the room occupied by Washington remains 
as he left it. The Dutch tiles, with their Scripture illus- 
trations, adorn the mantel. The closet and its wooden 
pegs used by the General for hanging his clothes, are the 
same. It was in this room that Washington signed the 
death warrant of Major Andre, and from one of the windows 



APPROACHING CLOSE OP WASHINGTON'S CAREER. 347 

he saw the preparations for Andre's execution upon the 
hill and ordered his sen-ant to close the blinds. As we 
shall see in the end he looked upon this act as one of the 
necessary tragedies of war. 

Major Andre left West Point on the morning of Septem- 
ber 28th, with Major Tallmadge, and arrived at Tappan on 
the evening of that day. He was assigned quarters at a 
tavern then kept by Carparus Maybee, now known as the 
'76 House. At the same time Joshua Hett Smith was con- 
fined in the Dutch church, about 100 feet distant from the 
'76 House, where he heard most of the conversation during 
the trial of Andre. The Dutch church, where Andre was 
tried, was built in 1716, rebuilt and enlarged in 1788. At 
a later period it was demolished and the present edifice 
was erected in 1835. 

The provisions supplied to Major Andre during his con- 
finement were sent from Washington's private table. Mrs. 
De Wint would no doubt give all the delicacies which a 
sympathizing woman could provide for an attractive man 
doomed to die for his zeal to serve his country. 

Washington's work was done. He had built up a nation 
destined, if it will but follow his example, to be the greatest 
upon earth. Since his retirement from the presidency his 
health had been remarkably good ; and although advancing 
years had brought their infirmities, yet up to the very close 
of life he was able to endure fatigue, and make exertions of 
body and mind, with scarcely less ease and activity than he 
had done in the prime of his strength. 

Washington Irving made many anxious efforts to have 
the Sharpies portraits appear in his Life of the great Patriot. 
No miserable desire of gain on the part of the owners pre- 
vented this. Nothing but legal settlement of the paintings 
stood in the way of gratifying his wishes. The whole set 
are laid before the reader of these Memorials, who desires 

Y y 2 



34S COMMENCEMENT OF HIS FATAL ILLNESS. 

that the last scene in the noblest of all lives should here bdr 
recorded in the language of Irving himself, whose hand the 
writer so frequently grasped, on a first visit to America in 
1848, and who holds it his highest honour to have been 
called his friend. 

Irving tells us, in his simple language : — 

" Winter had now set in, with occasional wind and rain 
and frost, yet Washington still kept up his active round of 
indoor and out-door avocations, as his diary records. He 
was in full heath and vigour, dined out occasionally, and 
had frequent guests at Mount Vernon ; and, as usual, was 
part of every day in the saddle, going the rounds of his 
estates, and, in his military phraseology, ' visiting the out- 
posts.' 

About ten o'clock on the morning of the 12th of Decem- 
ber, he mounted his horse, and rode out as usual to make 
the rounds of the estate. The ominous ring round the 
moon, which he had observed on the preceding night, proved 
a fatal portent. ' About one o'clock,' he notes, ' it began 
to snow, soon after to hail, and then turned to a settled cold 
rain.' Having on an overcoat, he continued his ride 
without regarding the weather, and did not return to the 
house until after three. 

His secretary approached him with letters to be franked, 
that they might be taken to the post-office in the evening. 
Washington franked the letters, but observed that the 
weather was too bad to send a servant out with them. Mr. 
Lear perceived that snow was hanging from his hair, and 
expressed fears that he had got wet ; but he replied, ' No, 
his great-coat had kept him dry.' As dinner had been 
waiting for him, he sat down to table without changing his 
dress. ' In the evening,' writes his secretary, ' he appeared 
as well as usual.' 

On the following morning the snow was three inches deep 



APPROACH OF THE CLOSING SCENE. 349 

and still falling, which prevented him from taking his usual 
ride. He complained of a sore throat, and had evidently 
taken cold the day before. In the afternoon the weather 
cleared up, and he went out on the grounds between the 
house and the river, to mark some trees which were to 
be cut down. A hoarseness, which had hung about him 
through the day, grew worse towards night ; but he made 
light of it. 

He was very cheerful in the evening, as he sat in the 
parlour with Mrs. Washington and Mr. Lear, amusing 
himself with the papers which had been brought from the 
post-office. When he met with anything interesting or 
entertaining, he would read it aloud as well as his hoarse- 
ness would permit ; or he listened and made occasional 
comments, while Mr. Lear read the debates of the Virginia 
Assembly. 

On retiring to bed, Mr. Lear suggested that he should 
take something to relieve the cold. ' No,' replied he, 
' you know I never take anything for a cold. Let it go as 
it came.' 

In the night he was taken extremely ill with ague and 
difficulty of breathing. Between two and three o'clock in 
the morning he awoke Mrs. Washington, who would have 
risen to call a servant ; but he would not permit her, lest 
she should take cold. At daybreak, when the servant 
woman entered to make a fire, she was sent to call Mr. 
Lear. He found the General breathing with difficulty, and 
hardly able to utter a word intelligibly. Washington 
desired that Dr. Craik, who lived in Alexandria, should be 
sent for, and that in the meantime Rawlins, one of the 
overseers, should be summoned to bleed him before the 
doctor could arrive. 

A gargle was prepared for his throat ; but, whenever he 
attempted to swallow any of it, he was convulsed and 



350 REQUESTS AN OLD WILL TO BE DESTROYED. 

almost suffocated. Rawlins made his appearance soon after 
sunrise, but, when the General's arm was ready for the 
operation, became agitated. ' Don't be afraid,' said the 
General, as well as he could speak. Rawlins made an 
incision. ' The orifice is not large enough,' said Washing- 
ton. The blood, however, ran pretty freely, and Mrs. 
Washington, uncertain whether the treatment was proper, 
and fearful that too much blood might be taken, begged 
Mr. Lear to stop it. When he was about to untie the string 
the General put up his hand to prevent him, and as soon as 
he could speak, murmured, ' More — more ;' but Mrs. 
Washington's doubts prevailed, and the bleeding was 
stopped, after about half a pint of blood had been taken. 
External applications were now made to the throat, and 
his feet were bathed in warm water, but without affording 
any relief. 

His old friend Dr. Craik arrived between eight and nine, 
and two other physicians, Drs. Dick and Brown, were 
called in. Various remedies were tried, and additional 
bleeding — but all of no avail. 

'About half-past four o'clock,' writes Mr. Lear, 'he 
desired me to call Mrs. Washington to his bedside ; when 
he requested her to go down into his room and take from 
his desk two wills, which she would find there, and bring 
them to him — which she did. Upon looking at them, he 
gave her one, which he observed was useless, as being 
superseded by the other, and desired her to burn it, which 
she did, and took the other and put it into her closet. 

' After this was done, I returned to his bedside and took 
his hand. He said to me : — " I find I am going, my breath 
cannot last long. I believed from the first that the disorder 
would prove fatal. Do you arrange and record all my late 
military letters and papers. Arrange my accounts and 
settle my books, as you know more about them than any 



THE GREAT PATRIOTS LAST MOMENTS. 351 



one else ; and let Mr. Rawlins finish recording my other 
letters which he has begun." I told him this should be 
done. He then asked if I recollected anything which it was 
essential for him to do, as he had but a very short time to 
continue with us. I told him that I could recollect nothing ; 
but that I hoped he was not so near his end. He observed, 
smiling, that he certainly was, and that, as it was the debt 
which we must all pay, he looked to the event with perfect 
resignation.' 

In the course of the afternoon he appeared to be in great 
pain and distress from the difficulty of breathing, and fre- 
quently changed his posture in the bed. Mr. Lear endea- 
voured to raise him and turn him with as much ease as 
possible. ' I am afraid I fatigue you too much,' the 
General would say. Upon being assured to the contrary, 
' Well,' observed he gratefully, ' it is a debt we must pay 
to each other, and I hope when you want aid of this kind 
you will find it.' 

His servant, Christopher, had been in the room during 
the day, and almost the whole time on his feet. The 
General noticed it in the afternoon, and kindly told him to 
sit down. 

About five o'clock his old friend Dr. Craik came again 
into the room, and approached the bedside. ' Doctor,' 
said the General, ' I die hard, but I am not afraid to go. 
I believed, from my first attack, that I should not survive 
it — my breath cannot last long.' The doctor pressed his 
hand in silence, retired from the bedside, and sat by the 
fire absorbed in grief. 

Between five and six the other physicians came in, and 
he was assisted to sit up in his bed. ' I feel I am going,' 
said he ; ' I thank you for your attentions, but I pray you 
to take no more trouble about me : let me go off quietly ; 
I cannot last long.' He lay down again ; all retired, ex- 



352 



HIS DEATH. 



cepting Dr. Craik. The General continued uneasy and 
restless, but without complaining, frequently asking what 
hour it was. 

Further remedies were tried without avail in the evening. 
He took whatever was offered him, did as he was desired 
by the physicians, and never uttered sigh or complaint. 




L,\d 



BED AND BEDSTEAD ON WHICH WASHINGTON DIED. 



' About ten o'clock,' writes Mr. Lear, ' he made several 
attempts to speak to me before he could effect it. At 
length he said, " I am just going. Have me decently 
buried, and do not let my body be put into the vault in less 
than three days after I am dead." I bowed assent, for I 
could not speak. He then looked at me again and said, 
" Do you understand me ?" I replied, " Yes." " Tis well," 
said he. 

' About ten minutes before he expired (which was between 
ten and eleven o'clock) his breathing became easier. He 
lay quietly ; he withdrew his hand from mine, and felt his 
own pulse. I saw his countenance change. I spoke to 
Dr. Craik, who sat by the fire : he came to the bedside. 



ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE EVENT TO CONGRESS. 353 



The General's hand fell from his wrist : I took it in mine, 
and pressed it to my bosom. Dr. Craik put his hands over 
his eyes, and he expired without a struggle or a sigh. 

' While we were fixed in silent grief, Mrs. Washington, 
who was seated at the foot of the bed, asked with a firm 
and collected voice, " Is he gone ? " I could not speak, but 
held up my hand as a signal that he was no more. " Tis 
well," said she in the same voice. "All is now over: I 
shall soon follow him ; I have no more trials to pass 
through."' 

Congress was in session in Philadelphia at the moment 
of Washington's death. A written message was received 
from the President, transmitting a letter from Mr. Tobias 
Lear (Washington's private secretary), " which," said the 
message, " will inform you that it had pleased Divine 
Providence to remove from this life our excellent fellow- 
citizen, GEORGE WASHINGTON, by the purity of his 
life, and a long series of services to his country, rendered 
illustrious through the world. It remains for an affectionate 
and grateful people, in whose hearts he can never die, to 
pay suitable honour to his memory." 

On this mournful event the Senate addressed to the 
President the following letter : — 

" The Senate of the United States respectfully take 
leave, sir, to express to you their deep regret for the loss 
their country sustains in the death of General GEORGE 
WASHINGTON. 

" This event, so distressing to all our fellow-citizens, 
must be peculiarly heavy to you, who have long been 
associated with him in deeds of patriotism. Permit us, sir, 
to mingle our tears with yours. On this occasion it is 
manly to weep. To lose such a man, at such a crisis, it 
no common calamity to the world. Our country mourns a 
father. The Almighty Disposer of human events has 

Z z 



354 THE SENATE'S ADDRESS ON THE EVENT. 

taken from us our greatest benefactor and ornament. It 
becomes us to submit with reverence to HIM who ' maketh 
darkness His pavilion.' 

" With patriotick pride we review the life of our 
WASHINGTON, and compare him with those of other 
countries who have been pre-eminent in fame. Ancient 
and modern names are diminished before him. Greatness 
and guilt have too often been allied ; but his fame is 
whiter than it is brilliant. The destroyers of nations stood 
abashed at the majesty of his virtues. It reproved the 
intemperance of their ambition, and darkened the splendour 
of victory. The scene is closed, and we are no longer 
anxious lest misfortune should sully his glory ; he has 
travelled on to the end of his journey, and carried with him 
an increasing weight of honour ; he has deposited it safely 
where misfortune cannot tarnish it, where malice cannot 
blast it. Favoured of heaven, he departed without exhibit- 
ing the weakness of humanity ; magnanimous in death, the 
darkness of the grave could not obscure his brightness. 

" Such was the man whom we deplore. Thanks to God, 
his glory is consummated. WASHINGTON yet lives on 
earth in his spotless example. . . . His spirit is in heaven. 

" Let his countrymen consecrate the memory of the 
heroick general, the patriotic statesman, and the virtuous 
sage. Let them teach their children never to forget that 
the fruits of his labours and his example are their inheri- 
tance." 

To which the President made the following answer : — 
" I receive, with the most respectful and affectionate 
sentiments, in this impressive address, the obliging expres- 
sions of your regret for the loss our country has sustained, 
in the death of her most esteemed, beloved, and admired 
citizen. 



THE PRESIDENTS REPLY TO THE SENATE. 355 

" In the multitude of my thoughts and recollections on 
this melancholy event, you will permit me to say that I have 
seen him in the days of adversity, in some of the scenes of 
his deepest distress, and most trying perplexities. I have 
also attended him in his highest elevation and most pros- 
perous felicity, with uniform admiration of his wisdom, 
moderation, and constancy. 

" Among all our original associates in that memorable 
league of this continent in 1774, which first expressed the 
sovereign will of a free nation in America, he was the only 
one remaining in the general government. Although with 
a constitution more enfeebled than his, at an age when he 
thought it necessary to prepare for retirement, I feel myself 
alone, bereaved of my last brother ; yet I derive a strong 
consolation from the unanimous disposition which appears 
in all ages and classes to mingle their sorrows with mine 
on this common calamity to the world. 

"The life of our WASHINGTON cannot suffer by a 
comparison with those of other countries, who have been 
most celebrated and exalted by fame. The attributes and 
decorations of royalty could only have served to eclipse the 
majesty of those virtues which made him, from being a 
modest citizen, a more resplendent luminary. Misfortune, 
had he lived, could hereafter have sullied the glory only 
with those superficial minds, who, believing that characters 
and actions are marked by success alone, rarely deserve to 
enjoy it. Malice could never blast his honour, and envy 
made him a singular exception to her universal rule. For 
himself, he had lived long enough to life and to glory. For 
his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, 
he would have been immortal ; for me, his departure is at a 
most unfortunate moment. Trusting, however, in the wise 
and righteous dominion of Providence over the passions of 
men, and the results of their councils and actions, as well 

Z z 2 



356 MR. MARSHALL'S ANNOUNCEMENT. 

as over their lives, nothing remains for me but humble 
resignation." 

V" 

On opening the House of Representatives the morning 

after Washington's death, Mr. Marshall addressed it in the 
following terms : — 

' The melancholy event which was yesterday announced 
with doubt, has been rendered but too certain — our Wash- 
ington is no more ! The hero, the patriot, and the sage of 
America . . . the man on whom in times of danger every 
eye was turned and all hopes were placed, lives now only 
in his own great actions, and in the hearts of an affectionate 
and afflicted people. 

" If, sir, it had even not been usual openly to testify 
respect for the memory of those whom Heaven has selected 
as its instruments for dispensing good to man, yet, such has 
been the uncommon worth, and such the extraordinary inci- 
dents which have marked the life of him whose loss we all 
deplore, that the whole American nation, impelled by the 
same feelings, would call with one voice for a public mani- 
festation of that sorrow which is so deep and so universal. 

" More than any other individual, and as much as to one 
individual was possible, has he contributed to found this our 
wide-spreading empire, and to give to the Western World 
independence and freedom. 

" Having effected the great object for which he was 
placed at the head of our armies, we have seen him convert 
the sword into the ploughshare, and sink the soldier into 
the citizen. 

" When the debility of our Federal system had become 
manifest, and the bonds which connected this vast conti- 
nent were dissolving, we have seen him, the chief of those 
patriots who formed for us a Constitution which, by pre- 
serving the Union, will, I trust, substantiate and perpetuate 



SUMMARY OF WASHINGTON'S CHARACTER. 357 



those blessings which our Revolution had promised to 
bestow. 

" In obedience to the general voice of his country, calling 
him to preside over a great people, we have seen him once 
more quit the retirement he loved, and in a season more 
stormy and tempestuous than war itself, with calm and wise 
determination, pursue the true interests of the nation, and 
contribute, more than any other could contribute, to the 
establishment of that system of policy which will, I trust, 
yet preserve our peace, our honour and independence. 

" Having twice been unanimously chosen the Chief 
Magistrate of a free people, we have seen him, at a time 
when his re-election with universal suffrage could not be 
doubted, afford to the world a rare instance of moderation, 
by withdrawing from his high station to the peaceful walks 
of private life. 

" However the publick confidence may change, and the 
publick affections fluctuate with respect to others, with 
respect to him they have, in war and in peace, in publick and 
in private life, been as steady as his own firm mind, and as 
constant as his own exalted virtues." 

No truer or more faithful summary of Washington's 
character has appeared than the following, given to the world 
almost on the day of his death by the Rev. Dr. Bancroft :— 

" His countenance was serene and thoughtful. His 
manners were graceful, manly, and dignified. His general 
appearance never failed to engage the respect and esteem 
of all who approached him. 

Possessing strong natural passions, and having the nicest 
feelings of honour, he was, in early life, prone keenly to 
resent practices which carried the intention of abuse or 
insult ; but the reflections of maturer age gave him the 
most perfect government of himself. He possessed a faculty 



358 THE WASHINGTON AND BALL FAMILY ARMS. 



above all other men, to hide the weaknesses inseparable 
from human nature ; and he bore with meekness and 
equanimity his distinguished honours. 

Reserved, but not haughty, in his disposition, he was 
accessible to all in concerns of business, but he opened 
himself only to his confidential friends; and no art or 

address could draw from 
him an opinion, which he 
thought prudent to conceal. 




Above arms have, after much research, been 
ascertained to be those borne by the family in 
England. It will be seen closely to resemble 
the Virginian armorial bearings of the American 

settlers. 



Above arms of Washington are from Wash- 
ington's original book label, presented to Major 
James Walter by the poet Longfellow. 



[In all that concerns the reproduction of the home of Washington, it 
has been deemed best to give such in the simplest and rudest possible 
style, as in the days in which the illustrious Patriot lived. The writer of 
the Memorials feels that his readers will prefer such primitive illustrations, 
especially seeing that they are accompanied by the beautiful portraits 
forming the great feature of the work.] 



DR. BANCROFTS SKETCH OF WASHINGTON. 359 



He was not so much distinguished for brilliancy of genius, 
as for solidity of judgment, and consummate prudence of 
conduct. He was not so eminent for any one quality of 
greatness and worth, as for the union of those great, amiable, 
and good qualities, which are very rarely combined in the 
same character. 

His maxims were formed upon the result of mature 
reflection, or extensive experience; they were the invari- 
able rules of his practice ; and on all important instances, 
he seemed to have an intuitive view of what the occasion 
rendered fit and proper. He pursued his purposes with a 
resolution which, one solitary moment excepted, never 
failed him. 1 

Alive to social pleasures, he delighted to enter into 
familiar conversation with his acquaintance, and was 
sometimes sportive in his letters to his friends ; but he 
never lost sight of the dignity of his character, nor deviated 
from the decorous and appropriate behaviour becoming his 
station in society. 

He commanded from all the most respectful attention, 
and no man in his company ever fell into light or lewd 
conversation. His style of living corresponded with his 
wealth ; but his extensive establishment was managed with 
the strictest economy, and he ever reserved ample funds 
liberally to promote schemes of private benevolence, and 
works of publick utility. Punctual himself to every engage- 
ment, he exacted from others a strict fulfilment of contracts ; 
but to the necessitous he was diffusive in his charities, and 
he greatly assisted the poorer classes of people in his 
vicinity, by furnishing them with means successfully to 
prosecute plans of industry. 

In domestic and private life, he blended the authority of 
the master with the care and kindness of the guardian and 
1 On York Island in 1776. 



360 DR. BANCROFTS SKETCH CONTINUED. 

friend. Solicitous for the welfare of his slaves, while at 
Mount Vernon, he every morning rode round his estates to 
examine their condition ; for the sick, physicians were 
provided, and to the weak and infirm every necessary 
comfort was administered. The servitude of the negroes 
lay with weight upon his mind ; he often made it the subject 
of conversation, and revolved several plans for their general 
emancipation, but could devise none, which promised 
success, in consistency with humanity to them, and safety 
to the State. 

The address presented to him at Alexandria, on the 
commencement of his presidency, fully shows how much 
he was endeared to his neighbours, and the affection and 
esteem in which his friends held his private character. 

His industry was unremitted, and his method so exact, 
that all the complicated business of his military command 
and civil administration was managed without confusion 
and without hurry. Not feeling the lust of power, and 
ambitious only for honourable fame, he devoted himself 
to his country upon the most disinterested principles ; and 
his actions were not the semblance, but the reality of virtue. 
The purity of his motives was accredited, and absolute 
confidence placed in his patriotism. 

While filling a publick station, the performance of his 
duty took the place of pleasure, emolument, and every 
private consideration. During the more critical years of 
the war, a smile was scarcely seen upon his countenance ; 
he gave himself no moments of relaxation ; but his whole 
mind was engrossed to execute successfully his trust. 

As a military commander, he struggled with innumerable 
embarrassments, arising from the short enlistment of his 
men, and from the want of provision, clothing, arms, and 
ammunition ; and an opinion of his achievements should 
be formed in view of these inadequate means. 



DR. BANCROFT'S SKETCH CONTINUED. 361 

The first years of his civil administration were attended 
with the extraordinary fact that while a great proportion of 
his countrymen reprobated his measures, they universally 
venerated his character, and relied implicitly on his 
integrity. Although his opponents eventually deemed it 
expedient to villify his character, that they might diminish 
his political influence, yet the moment that he retired from 
publick life, they returned to their expressions of veneration 
and esteem, and after his death used every endeavour to 
secure to their party the influence of his name. 

He was eminent for piety as for patriotism. His publick 
and private conduct evince that he impressively felt a sense 
of the superintendence of God and of the dependence of 
man. In his addresses while at the head of the army and of 
the national government, he gratefully noticed the signal 
blessings of Providence, and fervently commended his 
country to divine benediction. In private he was known 
to have been habitually devout. 

In principle and practice he was a Christian — the sup- 
port of an Episcopal Church in the vicinity of Mount 
Vernon rested principally upon him ; and here, when on his 
estate, he with constancy attended publick worship. In his 
address to the American people, at the close of the war, 
mentioning the favourable period of the world at which the 
independence of his country was established, and enume- 
rating the causes which unitedly had ameliorated the 
condition of human society, he, above science, philosophy, 
commerce, and all other considerations, ranked ' the pure 
and benign light of Revelation? 

Supplicating Heaven that his fellow-citizens might culti- 
vate the disposition and practise the virtues which exalt a 
community, he presented the following petition to his God : 
' That He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us 
all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves 

3 A 



362 



DR. BANCROFT'S SKETCH CONTINUED. 



with that charity, humility, and pacifick temper of mind 
which were the characteristicks of the Divine Author of our 
blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose 
example, in these things, we can never hope to be a happy 
nation.' 

During the war he not unfrequently rode ten or twelve 
miles from camp to attend publick worship ; and he never 
omitted this attendance when opportunity presented. 

In the establishment of his presidential household, he 
reserved to himself the Sabbath, free from the interruptions 
of private visits, or publick business ; and throughout the 
eight years of his civil administration, he gave to the in- 
stitutions of Christianity the influence of his example. 

Uniting the talents of the soldier with the qualifications of 
the statesman, and pursuing, unmoved by difficulties, the 
noblest end by the purest means, he had the supreme 
satisfaction of beholding the complete success of his great' 
military and civil services, in the independence and happi- 
ness of his country." 




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